Migrate from Zammad to Zoho Desk

Zammad Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets with full thread history. The Zammad article structure (sender type, internal/external flag, timestamp) maps to Zoho Desk Comments and Threads. We preserve the original ticket number as an external reference field, and state/priority mapping is configured before migration. Note that Zoho Desk does not natively preserve article internal/external visibility flags — we flag this and recommend using Zoho Desk's Internal Comments vs Public Comments separation as the replacement visibility model.

Zammad Agents map to Zoho Desk Agents. We resolve by email match and preserve role permissions by mapping Zammad Role names to Zoho Desk Roles. Agent provisioning in Zoho Desk requires the admin to assign agents to Departments — we flag this step and provide a Department assignment mapping based on the customer's Zammad Group structure before the user migration phase begins.

Zammad Customers map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Customer email, phone, and organization membership transfer directly. Note that Zammad allows Users without an Organization; Zoho Desk Contacts can exist without an Account (Organization equivalent), which maps cleanly.

Zammad Organizations map to Zoho Desk Accounts. Organization-level custom fields transfer as Account custom fields. A User in Zammad can belong to multiple Organizations — in Zoho Desk a Contact is primarily linked to one Account, with secondary Account links available via custom fields if needed. We flag this multi-organization membership pattern during scoping so the customer can choose whether to create linked Account records or flatten the membership.

Zammad Groups map conceptually to Zoho Desk Departments, but the mapping is not direct. Zammad Groups control ticket assignment, email routing, and agent access; Zoho Desk Departments control these plus agent visibility scope across the help desk hierarchy. We require the customer to define the Department structure in Zoho Desk before migration and provide a Group-to-Department mapping table. Some Zammad Groups (e.g., shared inbox groups for email routing) may need to be recreated as Zoho Desk Shared Mailboxes or Team Inboxes, not just Departments.

Zammad Roles (Agent, Admin, Custom roles) map to Zoho Desk Roles. Permission sets differ in granularity — Zammad's role permissions are broader, while Zoho Desk's agent roles include department-level scoping. We map the closest equivalent Zoho Desk role for each Zammad role and flag any permission gaps that require the customer's admin to adjust after migration.

Zammad SLA configurations (response time, resolution time, calendar bindings) map to Zoho Desk SLA configurations. Note that Zoho Desk's SLA enforcement is gated by pricing tier — Standard and Professional tiers include basic SLA rules; advanced SLA management with multiple SLA policies and department-specific calendars require the Enterprise tier. We verify the destination tier's SLA capabilities during scoping and flag any SLA features that require an upgrade.

Zammad Tags on Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tags. Tags are flat key-value labels in both platforms, so the mapping is direct. However, Zoho Desk tags applied at the ticket level are preserved, and we confirm tag visibility and filtering behavior matches the customer's expectations post-migration.

Zammad time entries on tickets map to Zoho Desk Time Logs. This is a high-severity mapping step: Zammad time entries are immutable post-creation, so we require customers to audit and correct time entries in Zammad before migration. Incorrectly logged time in Zammad cannot be fixed after migration. Zoho Desk Time Logs are fully editable post-import, so any source-side corrections must be made in Zammad before the migration window. We flag any ticket with a time entry that appears to be logged incorrectly (e.g., negative durations, entries after ticket close) for customer review before migration begins.

Ticket article attachments migrate with content-type, filename, and size preserved. Zammad's default 10 MB per-attachment limit (configurable on higher tiers) maps to Zoho Desk's attachment limits per plan tier. We transfer large attachments (up to 50 MB per file in Zoho Desk Enterprise) via direct API upload with chunking for files over 25 MB. Attachment references in ticket thread text are updated to point to the new Zoho Desk-hosted file URL.

Zammad Knowledge Base articles and their category assignments migrate to Zoho Desk Help Center articles. However, Zoho Desk's Knowledge Base attachment handling (documented in Zoho's own migration guides) excludes article attachments — we handle these as a separate file transfer with URL remapping in the article body. Article visibility settings (internal vs external) in Zammad are preserved via Zoho Desk's article access control settings per department.

Zammad Custom Objects (attached to Tickets, Users, Organizations, or Groups) map to Zoho Desk Custom Modules on Enterprise tier. We pre-create the destination custom module schema in Zoho Desk before migration, matching field types (Boolean, Date, DateTime, Integer, Float, Text, Single Select, Multi Select) to their Zoho Desk equivalents. Custom modules on lower Zoho Desk tiers (Standard, Professional) are not supported — we flag this during scoping if the destination is not on Enterprise.