Migrate from SmarterTrack to Zoho Desk

SmarterTrack Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tickets with full thread history (Ticket Threads and Ticket Comments). The SmarterTrack ticket status, priority, and assignee map to Zoho Desk ticket Status, Priority, and Assignee fields. We preserve the original Created Time in a custom field original_created_date__c because Zoho Desk does not set Created Time on import by default. Department assignment in SmarterTrack maps to the Zoho Desk Department field; we pre-create departments before migration and resolve the Department ID at insert time.

SmarterTrack Organizations (customer/company level) map directly to Zoho Desk Accounts. The organization name, phone, email, website, street, city, state, country, and description fields map to their Zoho Desk Account equivalents. Organizations with no associated contacts in SmarterTrack are created as Account-only records. The Account is created before any Contact import so the AccountId lookup is satisfied on Contact insert.

SmarterTrack Users (agents) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We match by email address as the dedupe key. The agent's department memberships, group memberships, and role assignment in SmarterTrack map to Zoho Desk Teams, Departments, and Agent Role. We require the customer's Zoho Desk admin to pre-create agent accounts with matching email addresses before migration because Zoho Desk requires explicit agent provisioning; agents without matching Zoho Desk accounts go to a reconciliation queue.

SmarterTrack Live Chat sessions have no native Zoho Desk equivalent. We split chat data into two paths: chat transcript content and metadata (duration, participant count, channel type) migrate as Ticket Comments on a newly created or linked ticket, and structured metadata fields (chat duration, participant count, satisfaction rating) migrate to custom fields on the Ticket record. We flag any chats without a linked SmarterTrack ticket and create standalone Zoho Desk tickets for those sessions during migration.

SmarterTrack Call Logs store duration, disposition, phone numbers, and custom fields. Zoho Desk has no native Call Log object. We migrate call metadata to custom fields on the associated Ticket record (call duration, disposition code, phone number) and preserve the call transcript or notes as a Ticket Comment. Custom field values from SmarterTrack Call Logs map to the corresponding custom field definitions we create in Zoho Desk before migration.

SmarterTrack KB Articles map to Zoho Desk Knowledge Base Articles with body content, category assignments, and draft/published status preserved. Inline HTML is preserved as-is. The article's brand scoping in SmarterTrack Enterprise maps to the Zoho Desk Multi-Brand Help Center brand assignment. Note that Zoho Desk's native KB import explicitly excludes Knowledge Base attachments; we extract SmarterTrack KB media files and re-link them using Zoho Desk's attachment API after article import completes.

SmarterTrack Departments map to Zoho Desk Departments. Department hierarchy and the mapping of users and groups to departments are preserved. Departments are migrated first because Tickets, Agents, and Custom Fields in Zoho Desk reference Department IDs as foreign keys. The migration cannot proceed past department creation until the department mapping is validated.

SmarterTrack Groups (agent grouping for ticket assignment) map to Zoho Desk Teams. Agent-to-team membership migrates during the User-to-Agent migration phase. Zoho Desk requires the Team Assignment feature to be enabled under Setup before teams can be assigned to tickets; we confirm this is enabled during the pre-migration configuration check.

SmarterTrack Brands (Enterprise feature) scope portals, knowledge bases, and tickets to separate customer-facing identities. We migrate brand associations for all Tickets, KB Articles, and portal-level settings. In Zoho Desk, the Multi-Brand Help Center feature (Standard tier and above) is configured post-migration by the customer's admin; we deliver a written brand-mapping document specifying which SmarterTrack brand maps to which Zoho Desk brand identifier and the portal URL configuration steps.

SmarterTrack Custom Fields on Tickets, Users, Organizations, Live Chats, Call Logs, Departments, and Groups map to Zoho Desk Custom Fields. Zoho Desk custom fields are scoped per department, so we pre-create field definitions within each target department before migration. SmarterTrack's 512-character per-field ceiling is enforced during mapping; any values exceeding this limit are flagged and either truncated (with a suffix indicating truncation) or held for customer decision before migration continues.

SmarterTrack SLA rules (first response time, next response time, resolution time thresholds per priority) are extracted as a written inventory with rule definitions, conditions, and actions. Zoho Desk SLA Policies are created post-migration by the customer's admin using Zoho Desk's SLA configuration UI. We deliver a field-by-field mapping of each SmarterTrack SLA rule to its recommended Zoho Desk SLA Policy equivalent and the specific fields to configure.

SmarterTrack auto-assignment, auto-closure, and ticket rebalancing rules are extracted as a written configuration inventory. Zoho Desk does not use the same workflow model; Zoho Desk's Blueprint feature defines process stages with explicit actions and approvals. We deliver a written map of every SmarterTrack workflow rule with its trigger, conditions, and actions mapped to the closest Zoho Desk Blueprint or Workflow equivalent, noting which rules have no direct Zoho Desk analog and recommending manual process adjustments.

SmarterTrack Community Posts (ideas, threads with replies and status indicators like Under Consideration, Answered) have no direct Zoho Desk equivalent. Zoho Desk's Community Forums require manual setup and content population. We extract community post data and deliver it as a structured CSV inventory that the customer's admin can use to manually recreate the community structure in Zoho Desk, including author attribution, status, and reply chains.

Ticket attachments, chat file transfers, and KB article media stored in SmarterTrack's App_data folder or database are extracted and re-linked to Zoho Desk records using the Zoho Desk Attachments API. Ticket attachments migrate to the corresponding Zoho Desk Ticket record; KB article media migrates to the Zoho Desk Knowledge Base Article record. We extract all binary files before migration begins and upload them during the attachment phase. Note: Zoho Desk's native Zwitch tool explicitly excludes KB article attachments; our attachment phase addresses this gap directly.

SmarterTrack Tags applied to Tickets and KB Articles migrate as Zoho Desk Tags. Tags in Zoho Desk are applied at the module level (Tickets, Knowledge Base Articles, etc.) using the tag API. We preserve tag labels and their associations with each record. If any tag label exceeds Zoho Desk's character limit, we flag it for the customer's admin to rename before migration.