Migrate from Serviceaide ChangeGear to Freshdesk

ChangeGear Incidents migrate to Freshdesk Tickets 1:1, preserving status, priority, category, assignment, and created/resolved timestamps. The original ChangeGear ticket type (Incident vs Problem vs Service Request) is preserved as a custom field original_ticket_type__c so the customer's admin can filter and report by the original classification. Freshdesk's single-ticket model means the workflow distinction between an Incident and a Service Request in ChangeGear is not native in Freshdesk; storing the original type as a field is the standard resolution.

ChangeGear Service Requests migrate to Freshdesk Tickets with request item details and fulfillment records preserved in the conversation thread. Approval steps from ChangeGear service requests map to Freshdesk conversation notes indicating the approval decision, approver, and timestamp. The requester's identity in ChangeGear maps to the Freshdesk requester field by email lookup.

Problem records in ChangeGear link to related Incidents via a known relationship type. Freshdesk Tickets do not have a native Problem linkage model. We extract the Problem-to-Incident relationship during discovery, build a relationship lookup table, and apply the association post-import by linking the Problem ticket to its related Incident tickets via Freshdesk's ticket link feature or a custom field holding the related ticket IDs.

Change records with CAB approvals, risk assessments, and implementation timelines have no native Freshdesk equivalent on Starter, Sprout, Blossom, Garden, or Estate tiers. On Forest (Freshdesk's enterprise tier), custom objects enable a Change Record migration. We scope this with the customer during discovery: if Freshdesk Forest or above is available, we create a custom object schema with fields for CAB decision, risk score, implementation date, and related CI references. If Forest is not in scope, we document the Change records as a CSV handoff for the customer's admin to manage outside Freshdesk.

ChangeGear Knowledge Base articles with content, categories, and publication status migrate to Freshdesk Solutions. We extract the full article body and metadata, including article categories and folder structure which map to Freshdesk solution categories. HTML content is preserved but may require review for formatting differences between ChangeGear's rich text editor output and Freshdesk's article renderer. Publication status (draft vs published) migrates directly. We flag any articles with broken hyperlinks for the customer's admin to correct post-migration.

CIs in ChangeGear form a relational graph with dependencies, affected services, and linked Incidents. Freshdesk has no native CI model on standard tiers. We extract the full CI relationship graph during discovery and either migrate it as a Freshdesk custom object (Forest tier) or export it as a structured CSV for the customer's admin to integrate with an external CMDB. CI-to-ticket linkages are preserved via a custom field on the ticket holding the related CI identifier.

ChangeGear User records with role-based access assignments and group memberships migrate to Freshdesk Agents and Groups. Active and inactive status is preserved; inactive agents are imported with their status so the customer's admin can deactivate them post-migration if needed. Group hierarchies from ChangeGear map to Freshdesk Group structure used for ticket routing and escalation. Agents without a Freshdesk account are flagged in the reconciliation report for the customer's admin to provision before final import.

SLA definitions in ChangeGear include priority-to-SLA mappings and breach thresholds. Freshdesk SLA policies are available on Garden tier and above. We extract the active SLA definitions from ChangeGear, match them to Freshdesk SLA policies by priority, and configure them post-migration. On lower tiers, SLA definitions are documented as a written handoff. SLA timer behavior differs between platforms; we validate a sample of SLA breach calculations against the original ChangeGear timers during the test migration phase and flag any discrepancies for the customer's admin to adjust in Freshdesk's SLA calendar configuration.

File attachments linked to Incidents, Changes, or Knowledge Articles are migrated via URL reference download-and-upload to Freshdesk. Freshdesk enforces attachment size limits per tier (25MB on Garden and above). We validate attachment file sizes against the destination tier limits during the pre-migration audit, flag any oversized files, and either skip them with documentation or compress before upload depending on the file type. Inline images within ticket descriptions and knowledge article bodies are handled as embedded content, with broken images flagged post-migration for the customer's admin to replace.

Custom fields on Incidents, Changes, and other ChangeGear objects require explicit field-level mapping. We extract the complete custom field schema from ChangeGear including data types (picklist, text, numeric, date, boolean), create matching custom fields in Freshdesk, and resolve type incompatibilities (ChangeGear picklists become Freshdesk dropdowns, booleans become checkboxes). Fields with no direct Freshdesk equivalent are flagged for the customer's admin to decide whether to drop, substitute, or manually populate post-migration. Schema comparison runs as a pre-migration step to prevent silent field-level import failures.