Migrate from Serviceaide ChangeGear to Zoho Desk

ChangeGear Incidents map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. Status, Priority, Category, Assignment, and timestamps transfer 1:1. We preserve the related CI reference from ChangeGear (the affected CI on the Incident) as a custom Ticket field pointing to the Zoho Products record created from the CI export. SLA response and resolution timers are extracted from ChangeGear and recalibrated against Zoho's business-hour calendar before import so breach calculations are accurate from day one in Zoho Desk.

ChangeGear Change records have no direct Zoho Desk equivalent. We split Change data into two destinations: the Change header (title, description, risk level, implementation timeline, and CAB decision) migrates as a Zoho Ticket with a custom field cf_change_type__c set to 'Standard', 'Normal', or 'Emergency' matching the ChangeGear change type, and the CAB approval steps migrate as Zoho Tasks with assignees, due dates, and completion status linked to the parent Ticket. Approval chain history is preserved in the Ticket description or a linked Note so audit trails are intact.

ChangeGear Service Requests map 1:1 to Zoho Desk Tickets with the ticket type field set to 'Request'. Request item details, fulfillment records, and approval steps transfer as Ticket child records. If ChangeGear uses a separate Service Request workflow from Incidents, we preserve the request type in a custom field for routing clarity.

Problem records in ChangeGear link to related Incidents via a known relationship type. Zoho Desk has no native Problem object, so we model Problem records as Zoho Tickets with cf_problem_record__c = true, and we create a custom Ticket field cf_linked_incidents__c storing the Incident ticket IDs as a comma-separated list or lookup reference. The admin rebuilds the problem-incident linkage view in Zoho Desk's custom list view or report builder.

ChangeGear Knowledge Base articles migrate to Zoho Desk's Help Center articles. We extract the full article body, categories, publication status, and last-modified timestamp. HTML content is preserved; formatting differences between the source and Zoho's article renderer may require minor post-import cleanup for complex layouts. Article categories map to Zoho Help Center categories. Draft status from ChangeGear preserves as Draft in Zoho.

ChangeGear hardware and software asset records migrate to Zoho Products with license counts, warranty statuses, and last-seen dates. We use Zoho's Products module as the destination for IT asset records since Zoho Desk does not have a separate Asset Management module. Active and decommissioned flags map to Product active/inactive status. Records with missing required fields are flagged in the reconciliation report before production load.

ChangeGear CIs form a relational graph with dependencies, affected services, and linked Incidents. Zoho Desk has no native CI object, so we create Zoho Products with a rich set of custom fields capturing CI-specific attributes: CI Type (Hardware, Software, Network, Document), Serial Number, Location, Dependency References (text field listing related CI names), Affected Services, and Linked Incident IDs. We generate a CI relationship matrix document during discovery so the admin can rebuild dependency views in Zoho Analytics.

ChangeGear user records with role-based access assignments migrate to Zoho Desk Agents. We match by email address and preserve active/inactive status. Role mappings (ChangeGear role to Zoho Desk permission profile) are applied during migration. Group memberships from ChangeGear map to Zoho Desk Teams for ticket routing and assignment.

ChangeGear groups used for ticket routing and approval chains map to Zoho Desk Teams. The group hierarchy is preserved as a flat team structure with team lead assignments mapped to Zoho Desk Team Lead roles. Approval groups from ChangeGear's change workflow are recreated as Teams in Zoho Desk with the same member list.

SLA definitions in ChangeGear include priority-to-SLA mappings and breach thresholds. We map these to Zoho Desk SLA policies configured against the relevant department. SLA timer recalibration is required because ChangeGear and Zoho Desk use different business-hour calendars. We extract the active SLA calendar from ChangeGear, configure the corresponding business hours in Zoho Desk, and validate a sample of SLA breach calculations post-import before final cutover.

Task records under Incidents, Changes, or Service Requests migrate with assignees, due dates, and completion status. We preserve the parent-child relationship to the owning ticket by resolving the parent ticket ID at migration time. Task status (Open, In Progress, Completed, Cancelled) maps directly to Zoho Desk Task status values.

File attachments linked to Incidents, Changes, or Knowledge Articles present a known limitation. Zoho's Zwitch tool explicitly does not migrate attachments, and the Zoho Desk REST API handles file uploads per-record. We perform a pre-migration inventory of all attachment count and size per ticket, then upload files via the Zoho Desk API after the primary ticket data loads. Files are linked to the correct parent record using the attachment reference from ChangeGear. We flag any attachments exceeding Zoho's file size limits before migration.

ChangeGear custom fields on Incidents require explicit field-level mapping to Zoho Desk custom fields. We extract the full custom field schema including data types (picklist, text, numeric, date, boolean) and validate type compatibility with Zoho Desk's supported types (string, decimal, integer, currency, checkbox, date, datetime, picklist, multi-select picklist). Incompatible types are flagged during pre-migration schema comparison and resolved either by value transformation or by creating a placeholder field in Zoho Desk before import.

ChangeGear custom fields on Change records (risk score, change owner, implementation window, rollback plan) map to Zoho Desk Ticket custom fields created under the department handling Change records. Risk level picklist values from ChangeGear (Low, Medium, High, Critical) migrate to the equivalent Zoho picklist values. CAB-related custom fields map to the Tasks created from the Change approval chain.