Migrate from SMART Service Desk to Zoho Desk

Requests are the core ticket object in SMART Service Desk and map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets. We map request status, priority, category, requester details, assigned technician, and full conversation history including internal and public comments. Priority mapping from SMART's priority levels to Zoho Desk's priority field is defined during scoping. Requester email is used as the dedupe key against Zoho Desk Contacts. The SMART Request number is preserved in a custom field smart_original_id__c for audit and cross-reference.

Problems link to their root-cause Requests via a Problem-Request association. We migrate the Problem description, impact, urgency, priority, and assigned analyst group. In Zoho Desk, Problems are modelled as Tickets with a custom Problem-Request link field or as linked records via a custom object, depending on whether the destination Zoho Desk instance has the IT Service Management module active. We flag the required module to the customer during scoping.

Changes carry ITIL-specific lifecycle fields: Change Category, Risk, Impact, and approval status. We migrate Change records with their associated CAB membership and approval history, mapping SMART's risk and impact values to Zoho Desk's Risk and Impact picklists. The Change ID sequence is regenerated post-import because SMART does not preserve Change IDs across export; we flag this during scoping and, where ID preservation is required, we raise a contact-support step before migration begins.

Releases follow a scheduled deployment lifecycle. We migrate Release title, description, planned start and end dates, assigned technician, and status. Release-to-Change associations are preserved where both records exist in the migration scope. Zoho Desk's Release module must be enabled in the active subscription tier before import.

Assets in SMART Service Desk include workstation records, components, consumables, and allocation details. We map the asset name, serial number, type, location, assigned user, and current status. Complex nested component hierarchies are flattened to the component level with a parent-asset reference field. Equipment records are linked to Zoho Desk Contacts via the assigned user field.

Solutions are the knowledge-base articles associated with SMART Service Desk's self-service and agent-facing KB. We migrate article title, body content, summary, category, and publication status. Articles linked to specific Requests or Problems are cross-referenced via custom fields. Note that Zoho Desk's Zwitch tool does not migrate Knowledge Base attachments; we handle attachment migration separately via direct API upload with a source-url mapping table.

Contracts record vendor agreements and SLA terms attached to Requests or Assets. We migrate contract name, type, vendor reference, start and end dates, and associated SLA tier. Multi-document contract attachments are handled separately. SLA tiers are mapped to Zoho Desk SLA policies which are created during the configuration phase before ticket import.

Vendor records store contact information and associated contracts or purchase orders. We migrate vendor name, contact details, and type. Vendor associations to Purchase Orders and Contracts are preserved via lookup fields. Vendors are imported before Contracts and Purchase Orders to satisfy referential integrity.

Purchase Orders are linked to Vendors and represent procurement records. We migrate PO number, vendor reference, line items, total amount, and status. PO associations to Assets or Contracts are flagged for manual re-linkage post-import if the destination object IDs do not align. Purchase Orders require the Purchase Management module in Zoho Desk.

Categories are the taxonomy used to classify Requests, Problems, and Changes. We export the full category tree and re-create it in Zoho Desk using the nearest equivalent grouping mechanism, preserving the hierarchy. Category mappings for individual record types are documented in the migration scope document.

User records include name, email, department, site, and role. We map active users to Zoho Desk Agents and flag inactive or deprecated accounts. Department-level role resolution is handled differently between SMART on-premises (requester's department) and SMART cloud (request's department); we detect the deployment variant during discovery and remap department assignments accordingly so that approval routing reaches the correct Zoho Desk department inbox.

CAB membership and approval history from Change records are migrated as approval records linked to the relevant Agents. CAB members without active login accounts in SMART Service Desk are silently omitted from export; we cross-reference all CAB members against the user list during discovery and raise a flag for each member without a login so the customer can provision accounts or document which CAB roles require manual re-population after go-live.