Migrate from ThinkOwl to Zoho Desk

ThinkOwl embeds customer data in Cases using an embed=customer parameter rather than a standalone Contact object. We extract every distinct Contact referenced across all Cases: name, email, phone, company association, and custom contact properties (cf-prefixed fields like cf_contact_level). The extracted Contact records are imported into Zoho Desk Contacts first, satisfying the foreign-key dependency before ticket import begins. Email addresses serve as the dedupe key; contacts without emails are held in a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to resolve.

ThinkOwl Company records map directly to Zoho Desk Accounts. The company domain becomes the Account's Website field and is used as the dedupe key during import. Zoho Desk's multi-department model (Enterprise tier) requires each Account to be associated with a Department; we map the ThinkOwl team or business unit to a Zoho Desk Department during import scoping. Accounts are imported before Contacts to satisfy the Account-Contact lookup hierarchy.

ThinkOwl Cases map to Zoho Desk Tickets. The Case ID is preserved in a custom field (thinkowl_case_id__c) for audit and reconciliation. Status values (Open, In Progress, Resolved, Closed) map to Zoho Desk Ticket Status by label matching. Priority maps from ThinkOwl's priority field to Zoho Desk Priority. Category maps from the ThinkOwl category or channel field to Zoho Desk's Classification and Category fields. We map ThinkOwl's channel metadata (email, WhatsApp, chat, voice, social) to Zoho Desk's Channel field if the Channels module is active on the destination plan.

ThinkOwl stores conversation history as threaded entries within a Case. We export the full thread with direction (inbound/outbound), timestamp, agent or customer attribution, and message body. Each thread entry becomes a Zoho Desk Ticket Thread record (via the Comments API) with the author mapped to the corresponding Zoho Desk agent or the Contact. Internal notes in ThinkOwl (marked private) map to Zoho Desk Internal Notes with restricted visibility. Thread ordering is preserved by the createdTime timestamp.

ThinkOwl time entries are attached to Cases and record agent, duration, and billable status. We import time entries as Zoho Desk Ticket Time Entries using the Time Tracking module. Agent resolution maps ThinkOwl agent email to Zoho Desk agent UserId. Duration in minutes migrates directly. The time entry is linked to the migrated Ticket by Ticket ID. If Zoho Desk's time tracking module is not active on the destination plan, we migrate time entry data as Internal Notes on the Ticket.

ThinkOwl stores files via its Fileee module and associates them by filename reference. We export attachments from ThinkOwl's file storage, upload them to Zoho Desk's file attachment endpoint, and re-associate them by filename to the corresponding migrated Ticket. File size limits follow Zoho Desk's 20 MB per attachment cap; files exceeding this threshold are flagged for the customer's admin to handle as external links. MIME-type restrictions are honored per Zoho Desk's allowed types list.

ThinkOwl maintains a separate Drafts object for unsent replies. We do not create duplicate open Tickets from Drafts. Instead, draft content is imported as a Zoho Desk Internal Note with a [ORIGINAL_DRAFT] prefix and the draft timestamp preserved in the note body. This preserves work-in-progress context for agent review without generating noise in the ticket queue or triggering auto-escalation rules.

ThinkOwl Business Hours define support operating windows used for SLA calculations. We migrate business-hours configurations as structured records into Zoho Desk's Business Hours module. Zoho Desk's SLA engine uses Business Hours to compute First Response Due and Next Response Due; we verify that the ThinkOwl operating window (timezone, working days, start/end hours) maps correctly before import. Any non-standard holiday calendars are migrated as separate Zoho Desk holiday entries.

ThinkOwl Agent records include name, email, role, and team assignment. We map agent identities to Zoho Desk agents by email match. Any ThinkOwl agent without a matching Zoho Desk User is held in a reconciliation queue; the customer's admin provisions missing agents before record import. Role mapping (Agent, Supervisor, Admin) transfers by label match. Active/inactive status preserves from ThinkOwl.

ThinkOwl Teams group agents and define routing rules. On Zoho Desk Enterprise tier, Teams map to Departments with separate SLA policies, assignment rules, and visibility scopes. On Standard and Professional tiers, Teams map to Zoho Desk Groups. Routing rule logic (which team receives which case type) is documented as part of the workflow specification; it does not migrate as code but is provided as a written routing map for the admin to configure in Zoho Desk Blueprint or Assignment Rules.

Tags applied to ThinkOwl Cases are exported as flat label strings. We migrate tags as-is to Zoho Desk Tags on the corresponding Ticket. No semantic translation is applied; tag names must match exactly between source and destination. If a tag in ThinkOwl does not exist in Zoho Desk, we create it during import. Tags used for case categorization are preserved for reporting continuity.

ThinkOwl assigns custom fields a system-level cf-prefix identifier (cf101000, cf101001) with display labels managed in the admin UI. The API returns only the cf code. We extract both the display label and the system code during field inventory, create a mapping table, and provision equivalent custom fields in Zoho Desk with the display label as the field name. During import, we map the ThinkOwl cf code value to the Zoho Desk custom field by label-first matching, falling back to code matching where label collisions exist. Data types (text, number, date, picklist, checkbox) are preserved during the mapping.