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Overview of Freshdesk & Salesforce

Freshdesk allows a Company to improve Customer Service by automating time-consuming operations like sorting through Inquiries and allocating tickets.

Salesforce provides a web-based customer service tool that includes every essential thing that a fast-developing company needs to provide exceptional customer service.

Freshdesk To Salesforce Migration

Why Migrate from Freshdesk to Salesforce

Salesforce offers more to businesses, such as more than 100 integrations and currency support. Whereas, Freshdesk, triumphs due to features such as availability across all platforms and comprehensive customization choices at a lesser price than Salesforce. However, it is lacking in more complex functions. The following arguments explain why a company should migrate from Freshdesk to Salesforce:

  • 360 Degree Data Visibility – Sales + Support
  • Better Support Workflow, Rich Integration & Ton of Out of The Box Features
  • Powerful Customization Option

Understanding the technical Approach

While Freshdesk is a reliable support tool, our decision to migrate to Salesforce stems from several reasons, including the higher level of customization available, its strong integration with Sales and Marketing functionalities, and its suitability for enterprise organizations. However, during the migration process, it is crucial to prioritize the following considerations:

  • Data Migration
  • Customization & Integration
  • Workflow & Process Mapping
  • User Training & Adoption
  • Setting Data Security & Sharing Model
  • Testing & Validation
  • Post-migration Support & Enhancements

Migration Modules

Migrating To Salesforce Service Cloud From Freshdesk Requires A Deep Analysis, Planning, And Execution. The Migration Can Be Categorized Into Three Different Buckets And Corresponding Set Of Actions.

Setup Service Cloud, Profiles, migrate trigger, automation and integrations.

Migrate Agents, Tickets, Comments and Knowledgebase.

Migrate self-service portal to browse Knowledge, be able to log a ticket and manage other things.

Service Process, Automation & Integration Migration

Requirement Analysis
  • Understand existing Freshdesk processes, workflows, and data structures.
  • Define requirements for migration, including data mapping, automation, and integration needs. 

Service Cloud Setup

  • Set up profiles and permission sets: Configure security settings and user permissions.
  • Set up Case Management: 
    • Setup fields required for data migration.
    • List views, Page layouts, access control setup. 
    • Different channels configuration – Email to Case, Case new page in self service customer community, Phone to Case Integration or any other channel.
    • Macros & Workflow migration – Case Status Workflow, Acknowledgment, First Response, SLA (Entitlement and Milestone setup)
    • Trigger and automation migration
 Migrate Automation & Workflow
  • Configure Salesforce automation, workflows, and triggers to replicate Freshdesk processes.
  • Develop custom functionalities if needed to match existing Freshdesk workflows.
Migrate Integrations
  • Assess the existing integration like Jira, Voice, WhatsApp, Phone or Email or any third party integration.
  • Check with your Migration architect/Consultant for best way to direct the integration with Salesforce
Migrate Support Portal Using Salesforce Digital Site (Community)
  • Migrate the support portal by creating a new Digital Site.
    Though Salesforce provides Site builder, a tool to configure by clicks, but you may need to build some custom components using LWC and Apex.
  • Redirect the domain mapping in Salesforce. 
User Adoption Training & Support
  • Business user transition is very important as they are end user of the whole implementation and they must feel comfortable with new tool.
  • Convey the benefits they will get and help them to adopt it quickly.
Documentation
  • Document the existing processes.
  • Assess a better way to do it in Salesforce because Salesforce may have better native flow to achieve the requirement

Data Migration

 
Data Mapping

Freshdesk to Salesforce Service Cloud Data Mapping:

Freshdesk Salesforce Service Cloud
Agent User (Salesforce Standard license)
End User User (Customer Community Login or Plus license) + Contact + Account
Company Account
Contact Contact
Ticket Case
Ticket Comment Case Comment OR Feed Post (Whatever best suits per need)
Article Knowledge
Article Category Knowledge-base Category
Attachment File
System/Audit Fields
    • It’s very important to migrate audit fields – CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, CreatedById, LastModifiedById and CloseDate. In order to do to that, you should have permission on user/profile as explained here:
    • Considerations and activation of “Create Audit Fields”
    • You may face issue while moving audit fields (CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, CreatedById, LastModifiedById), so keep these values in custom fields as well if needed.
Jira Information Migration

 We can migrate Jira Issue numbers in any Case field by making additional api call: Jira Integration API | Freshdesk Developer Docs

  • Custom fields are returned as custom_fields in json response for a ticket, so get it and map with Salesforce field accordingly:
  • Some key points to remember:
    • Case Comment in Salesforce does not support rich text, so consider feed or email message too.
    • Preserve the inner linking from one case to another or Knowledgebase.
    • Manage duplicate Accounts and Contacts while migration.
    • Consider Audit field migration carefully – like createddate, lastmodifieddate, close date, createdby etc.
    • Update required field and keep linking of Data with Customer who created it.
      • Maintain the references of Knowledgebase to each other. Article referencing other article in Freshdesk will require to maintain the same kind of linking in Salesforce too.
OTHER DATA MIGRATION CONSIDERATION

Before Migration
  • While giving a migration estimate, always consider – on how many sandboxes migration will take place. Also migration will be done on sandboxes just for a set of records or full
  • Analyze resources|tools (Data loader, Batch, ETL, access to source and target system etc) required for migration and ask for it upfront. Unavailability of any tool may impact estimates and timeline heavily.
  • Volume of data must be known before providing timeline and estimate.
  • Identify the fields to be migrated and let the field mapping get confirmed with stakeholders. If you miss even a single field, it may cause re-doing of everything or updating all records.
  • Audit Fields: Research and prepare the list of audit fields (CreatedDate, Last Modified Date, CreatedById, CreatedByDate, CloseDate etc). Here is a Salesforce help article for the same: Considerations and activation of “Create Audit Fields”.
  • Do check the licenses before User migration – Feature License like Service Cloud User, Chat User, Knowledge User OR external user license.
  • Maintain ExternalId: Create an ‘External Id’ field to track the external primary key of each record being migrated. Keep it unique and External in field definition.
  • It’s worth brainstorming to identify the limitations (Governor Limits, Org Data Storage Limit) of migration like:
    • Field Length/Size match – for example if source org has a ‘Field’ having more characters than related field in Salesforce.
      We have faced issues while migrating Case Description, Case Comment, Chatter Post etc
    • API limit of data migration. For example, the maximum number of content versions that can be published in a 24-hour period is 5,000.
    • Storage Limit: if any object is going to consume a lot of storage, flag it with stakeholders as Salesforce is not a data storage place and can cause huge price and performance issues.
  • Date field’s timezone consideration if the dev team is in a different timezone.
  • Best is to use ETL tools (Dataloader, Dataloader.io, Dell Boomi, Talend etc) instead of using manual or code based approach (batch). However, if there is no workaround, it’s ok to use code.
  • Do create a strong strategy for delta migration (data created in existing system during migration window).
  • Do not forget to plan the Delta Migration:
    • Plan the final data migration and cutover from Freshdesk to Salesforce.
    • Ensure minimal downtime and data loss during the transition.
During Migration
  • Keep email deliverability off.
  • While moving Persons (User, Lead, Contact), make sure you invalidate the email in Sandboxes.
  • If possible, deactivate the email alerts.
  • Identify triggers|Flow|Process Builders which are not required to run on these records being migrated and turn them off to increase the speed.
  • Keep track of failed records otherwise you may lose some records in between.
  • Rich Text Area or HTML Supported Field: Keep here special attention:
    • Any images hosted on an existing system must be migrated to Salesforce and then the link of the image source must be updated in rich text.
    • Find out inline links and replace them with new endpoint links otherwise users will get redirected to the older system when they click on the link.
  • Import fields of existing system into custom fields you are unsure about. Sometimes Stakeholders ask for it though they have not asked in original requirement.
After Migration
  • Do a sanity check on some records for each object.
  • Pull some reports over migrated data and share with stakeholders to verify and approve it.
  • New records due to migration may have triggered scheduled jobs or time based job, don’t forget to visit there and delete these jobs
    • Time-based Workflow/Flow/Process
    • Scheduled Apex
    • Paused and waiting interview flows

Service Portal Community) Migration

  • Configure self-service portal – put standard registration form and login form.
  • Transform new case form along with standard case deflection.
  • Enable live chat powered by Einstein.
  • Customize Article detail page and enable community 360 to gather customer insights.

Positive impacts

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Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
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Streamlines Sales & Support Data
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Support Cost Reduction
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Augmented Customer Understanding

Transitioning from Freshdesk to Salesforce is a momentous choice that demands substantial time, resources, and diligent effort. To ensure the utmost return on this investment, it’s crucial to execute the migration impeccably. For this purpose, consider collaborating with a team like ours, boasting over 30 successful Freshdesk migrations and equipped with an in-house tool for seamless data extraction, transformation, and import into Salesforce. We’re eager to connect and swiftly demonstrate the ease of our process. Feel free to reach out to us at: contact@tenetizer.com

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