Migrate data to Freshservice: How to import seamlessly?

Migrating data from your old help desk to a new platform can feel like navigating a minefield. The risks of data loss, corruption, and disruptions to customer support operations loom large. Picture the frustration of losing crucial ticket data, customer information, or knowledge base articles — all the insights and context your team has accumulated over time. Even worse, imagine the chaos of prolonged service interruptions, leaving customers frustrated and your team overwhelmed.

Without a well-planned migration strategy, you might encounter productivity losses as your team struggles with manual data entry, errors, and the complexities of mapping data between systems. Misaligned or missing data could severely impede your ability to provide seamless customer experiences from the get-go on your new platform.

As your business evolves, you may find that your current help desk solution no longer aligns with your goals and requirements. When it's time to migrate to Freshservice, a modern IT service management (ITSM) tool, one critical consideration is how to seamlessly migrate your historical data, which serves as an invaluable source of information.

There are multiple approaches to migrating your support data, each with its own set of pros and cons.

Manual copy-pasting

The manual data migration method is a true test of patience and dedication for your team. If you've got a couple of weeks to kill jumping between help desk platforms, this is the route for you.

The good news? It's free! The bad news? Pretty much everything else.

For starters: get ready to keep paying for both your old and new help desk for a while. You'll need access to that historical data to import it over piece by piece.

Speaking of piece-by-piece, get those copying fingers stretched! Every last ticket, customer detail, note, attachment - you name it - has to be manually recreated one by one. Is it efficient? Not really.

But at least it'll give your support team something to do during the downtime as their productivity inevitably plummets. However, to be fair, the old human error factor means they'll likely be busy untangling messed up or stray migrated data, too.

So, unless you really value the personal touch of copy/pasting all your records, stay away from this method. Your team's sanity will thank you.

Outsourcing to a developer or hiring a freelancer

The freelancer or in-house hire route? Definitely an option if you're coding-challenged like most of us. But don't jump in headfirst - there are some major considerations.

First up, finding the right person is like finding a needle in a haystack of developers. You can't just hire any engineer off the street. This gig requires legit experience working with APIs and data migrations. A kind of niche, so to say.

Speaking of APIs, that's likely the data migration method they'll use, which means you'll need a temporary holding spot for all your data before importing it into the new customer service system. It could be a database or an exported CSV - but not every help desk plays nice with CSV imports or has limits on record volumes.

So, while hiring a freelance gunslinger or building an in-house A-Team has its pros, it could also become a time-wasting and money-wasting pit. Unless you're swimming in an unlimited budget, expect some hurdles, and don't say I didn't warn you!

The moral of the story? Do your research, figure out your data volume, and be ready to drop some serious cash if you go this route. It's often more complex (and pricey) than it seems on the surface.

Go for a professional migration service

When you partner with a professional migration service like Help Desk Migration, you gain access to a team of experts dedicated to ensuring a smooth and seamless migration to Freshservice. Their specialized knowledge and experience in data migration eliminate the guesswork and risks associated with DIY approaches.

One of the key advantages of professional migration services is the assurance of data integrity and security. With industry-leading security protocols and encrypted data transfers, you can trust that your valuable customer data, ticket histories, and knowledge base content will be safeguarded throughout the migration process. Help Desk Migration has a full-fledged security portfolio that keeps enriching with new certifications and compliances.

Moreover, professional migration services offer unparalleled customization options, allowing you to tailor the migration to your specific requirements. Whether it's mapping custom fields or preserving data relationships, their experts will ensure a seamless transition that aligns with your unique business needs. For instance, Help Desk Migration offers a set of pre-built customizations for importing data to Freshservice, including:

• Adding a tag to migrated tickets to enhance the sorting out of data on the target platform after the data migration.

• Keep the inline images, and don’t lose any bit of the communication history.

• Skip attachments to save the storage on your target and speed up your migration.

• Import the language versions of your knowledge base articles.

• Move call recordings as attachments to keep the reference materials.

• Filter data to your specific criteria and requirements.

• Migrate the newest records first and avoid any possible bottlenecks in service delivery.

Time is another precious resource that the Help Desk Migration service helps you save. By leveraging their automated migration tool and proven processes, you can significantly reduce the time and effort required for the data migration, minimizing disruptions to your ongoing operations and enabling a faster time-to-value with your new Freshservice implementation.

Perhaps most importantly, Help Desk Migration provides dedicated support and guidance throughout the entire migration journey. From initial planning and scoping to post-migration support, their team will be by your side, addressing any concerns or issues that may arise and ensuring a successful outcome.

With the peace of mind and expertise that professional migration services offer, you can confidently get started with your data import to Freshservice, unlocking the full potential of a modern ITSM solution without the risks and headaches.