Migrating Tickets

Managing Ticket Data During System Transition

Tickets—whether they are Incidents, Service Requests, Problems, Changes, Tasks, or Jobs—are the lifeblood of any IT Service Management (ITSM) system. Most platforms support some form of categorization, status, priority, assignment, and historical tracking. However, the structure and scope of these features can vary significantly from one system to another.

When migrating to a new system like HelpMaster, it’s important to determine what to do with your existing ticket data. Your options will depend on factors such as the volume of tickets, business continuity requirements, technical complexity, licensing constraints, and how accessible the legacy system will be after the transition.

Options for Handling Existing Tickets

Option 1: Use the Old System Until All Active Tickets Are Closed

This is often the simplest approach—just continue working in the old system until all currently open or active tickets are resolved. Once complete, begin logging and managing all new tickets in HelpMaster.

Best suited for:

  • Organizations with a small number of open tickets
  • Teams with minimal dependency on legacy ticket data
  • Situations where there’s no urgent need to decommission the old system

Things to consider:

  • You may need to operate two systems in parallel for a period
  • Users may find it confusing switching between platforms
  • Reporting may be fragmented across two systems during the transition

Option 2: Export Active Tickets into the New System

This hybrid approach involves migrating only currently open/active tickets into HelpMaster. This allows you to focus future operations in a single platform, while still wrapping up older work.

Best suited for:

  • Situations where running two systems simultaneously is not desirable
  • Organizations with a moderate number of active tickets
  • Scenarios where the old system must be shut down quickly

Considerations:

  • Plan for potential data loss or structure mismatches during import
  • Not all metadata (e.g. custom fields, workflow steps, SLA states) may map 1:1 between systems
  • You may need to reassign owners, statuses, or priorities to match HelpMaster’s configuration

Option 3: Export All Tickets (Historical + Active) into the New System

A full migration involves transferring the complete ticket history from your old platform to HelpMaster. This includes all closed, archived, and active tickets.

Best suited for:

  • Organizations with strict audit, compliance, or reporting needs
  • Teams that frequently review historical tickets for trend analysis or troubleshooting
  • Scenarios where the old system will no longer be accessible

Challenges:

  • Data mapping between two systems can be complex and time-consuming
  • Historical workflows, timestamps, file attachments, user IDs, and logs may not translate cleanly
  • Migration may require custom scripts or ETL (Extract-Transform-Load) tools

See also:

What About Historical Data?

Even if you don’t migrate every ticket, it’s important to ask: Should the old system remain available for historical reference?

In many cases, leaving the legacy platform accessible in a read-only mode is a practical way to preserve history without undertaking a full migration.

Benefits:

  • Retains full fidelity of old ticket data
  • Useful for audits, reviews, or disputes
  • Eases pressure during the transition period

Considerations:

  • Will retaining the old system incur subscription or infrastructure costs?
  • Can the platform be placed in a secure, read-only mode to prevent new entries?
  • Who will have access, and how will that be controlled?
  • When will the system eventually be deactivated?
  • Will reports still be available from the system in this stage
  • Can the data be exported into another format (MS Excel and read from there instead?)

đź“ť Final Recommendations

  • Start with a ticket inventory – identify open, pending, and archived tickets in your current system.
  • Decide early whether to fully migrate, partially migrate, or sunset the old system gradually.
  • Test the import process in a staging environment using sample tickets to evaluate accuracy.
  • Communicate the plan to staff clearly to minimize confusion during the cutover.
  • Document mapping rules for statuses, priorities, categories, and custom fields to assist with training and future troubleshooting.

By planning your ticket data strategy carefully, you’ll avoid data silos, improve staff efficiency, and ensure a smooth transition to HelpMaster.