Migrate from SmarterTrack to Zendesk

SmarterTrack Tickets map directly to Zendesk Tickets with full conversation thread preserved as public comments and internal notes. Status, Priority, and Type map to Zendesk Ticket Status, Priority, and Type fields respectively. The SmarterTrack assigned user becomes Zendesk Assignee; the Department becomes Zendesk Group. If SmarterTrack is on-premises, we extract tickets from the SQL Server database using the stTickets and stTicketMessages tables and construct comment records with IsPublic flags matching SmarterTrack's internal/external note distinction.

SmarterTrack Live Chat sessions are standalone objects with their own timestamps, participant info, and custom fields. We migrate chat transcripts as ticket comments on a newly created Zendesk Ticket, tagging the Subject with [Chat] prefix for identification. Chat custom field values map to Zendesk ticket custom fields. If the customer wants chat sessions preserved as a separate object, we document the mapping for a custom Zendesk app to surface chat records without duplicating ticket data.

SmarterTrack Call Logs carry duration, disposition, phone numbers, and custom fields. We create Zendesk Tickets with subject [Call] {phone_number} and populate call metadata in ticket custom fields (call_duration__c, call_disposition__c, call_from__c, call_to__c). If the destination Zendesk account includes Talk, we configure Talk to create tickets natively and flag that the existing call log records should be linked rather than recreated to avoid duplication.

SmarterTrack Users with active status map to Zendesk Users. We resolve users by email address. Role assignments (Administrator, Agent, etc.) map to Zendesk roles (Light Agent, Agent, Admin) based on the nearest permission equivalent. SmarterTrack departments become Zendesk Groups and agents are assigned to Groups during import. Any inactive SmarterTrack user referenced on historical tickets is mapped to a Zendesk User but flagged inactive to prevent login during migration validation.

SmarterTrack Organizations map to Zendesk Organizations. We use the organization domain or name as the dedupe key during import. Organization custom fields map to Zendesk organization custom fields. Organization-to-brand associations in SmarterTrack Enterprise map to Zendesk Organization Fields or Tags if multi-brand scoping is required in Zendesk.

KB Articles migrate to Zendesk Guide Articles under the customer's Help Center. Article body content migrates as-is for inline HTML; category structure maps to Zendesk Section hierarchy. Draft/published status migrates directly. Zendesk Guide must be activated before KB import begins (Admin > Guide > Settings > Activate). If the source SmarterTrack instance uses multiple brands for separate knowledge bases, we create corresponding Help Centers or Sections in Zendesk to preserve brand scoping.

SmarterTrack ticket custom fields (text, dropdown, checkbox, numeric, date) map to Zendesk ticket custom fields of equivalent type. SmarterTrack's 512-character per-field ceiling is flagged during scoping: any values at or exceeding 512 characters are trimmed or split into a secondary field with a _truncated suffix. Zendesk text fields support 65,536 characters, so overflow from SmarterTrack imports cleanly. Dropdown fields in SmarterTrack map to Zendesk tagger or dropdown fields with options preserved.

SmarterTrack Departments and Groups map to Zendesk Groups. We preserve the department hierarchy and which users belong to which Groups during import. Active vs inactive Group status migrates; inactive Groups are imported but not assigned to any active ticket routing to avoid orphaned agent assignments in Zendesk. Department-level SLA rules and routing settings are extracted as written documentation for the customer to recreate as Zendesk SLA policies and routing configurations.

Ticket attachments and chat file transfers stored in the SmarterTrack App_data folder or SQL Server BLOB are extracted and uploaded to Zendesk as ticket attachments. For on-premises instances, we extract from the filesystem path {AppData}\Attachments\ and re-link to the corresponding Zendesk Ticket by ticket ID mapping. Zendesk's API accepts attachments up to 50 MB per file; we chunk any larger files and upload in sequence. Attachments exceeding Zendesk's 1MB limit in alternative export formats are extracted from database BLOBs directly.

SmarterTrack Tags applied to Tickets and KB Articles migrate to Zendesk Tags. Tags in Zendesk are flat labels that can be applied across tickets and articles for filtering and reporting. If the customer used SmarterTrack tags as a classification hierarchy (e.g., product.category.subcategory), we discuss whether to preserve hierarchy via a multi-select field or convert to flat tags during scoping.

SmarterTrack Brands (Enterprise-tier only) scope portals, knowledge bases, and tickets to separate customer-facing identities. Zendesk does not have an identical multi-brand model at its base tiers. We map Brands to separate Zendesk Help Centers or, if the customer operates a single unified help desk, we strip brand scoping and tag records with the original Brand name for filtering. Multi-brand Zendesk requires the Enterprise+ Suite plan with a separate brand management add-on.

SmarterTrack SLA rules, auto-assignment rules, auto-closure rules, and Ticket Watcher thread settings are extracted as a written configuration inventory. These rule definitions do not migrate as executable code because the rule engine semantics differ between platforms. We deliver a document listing each SmarterTrack rule with its trigger conditions, actions, and a recommended Zendesk SLA Policy or Trigger equivalent. The customer's admin rebuilds them in Zendesk Admin post-migration.