Switching PSA or merging with another CW/AT instance

Edcel Ceniza Updated by Edcel Ceniza

On instances where you will need to switch PSAs (CW to AT or vice versa), or are merging with or acquiring another company and will need to merge your PSA - making sure your DD instance queries the right data is possible but not very straightforward.

How DeskDirector syncs data

To understand why the steps are needed, you must first understand how we handle syncing data to and from our database.

On initial setup of a DeskDirector instance, we do one big sync job, pulling in every entity (contact, company, member/resource and tickets) from your PSA and copying the data to our database.

Each of these entities have a "lastSyncDate" stamped on them. To optimize DeskDirector's database, we don't do real-time sync of every entity. Instead, we only sync recently updated entities based on their "LastUpdated" timestamp. Any entities that has a more recent "LastUpdated" timestamp compared to the "lastSyncDate", will be sync'd over.

The problem with merging PSA instances

The main problem with merging PSA instances is that the "LastUpdated" date of the entities may not be recent. This means, data will be missing in DD's database and they will only be sync'd over once their "LastUpdated" date is changed, which means going over and updating each entity.

If you have an SQL administrator, they should be able to do a bulk update of this date. We don't recommend touching the PSA's database if you do not have an expert database administrator.

I have a new PSA instance, can I just update the integration credentials of my existing DD instance?

No. While you may have fresh data into your new PSA and this will get pulled by DeskDirector, updating the integration credentials will not remove any existing data that is on our database from the old integration.

This results on several issues like duplicate data, ghost entities and others.

Using a new PSA, or using a merged instance will still be possible, but will not be very straightforward. Here’s what needs to be done:

  • We will create a new temporary DD instance for you
  • You will then add the integration credentials of your new PSA to this new DD instance
  • Once the sync is completed, we will copy the service catalogue, menu, custom email templates to the new instance (if you need it)
  • Setup the logic for the service catalogue (boards, status, priority, and others for each request types) - (done by customer)
  • Setup configuration from old instance to new (like default boards, sources, ticket statuses, email delivery, and others) -(done by customer)
  • Test instance (creating/updating tickets etc) (done by customer)
  • We will change DNS for subdomains to point to new instance
  • Remove old instance, go live with new

There is a charge of $500 for this whole process. Reach out to our support team to discuss further on this process.

How did we do?

How to Allow Time Entries for StreamlineIT Members

Contact