Switching or Merging PSAs

Niamh Ferns Updated by Niamh Ferns

How to Switch or Merge PSAs

There is a cost of $500 USD for migrating PSAs for your DeskDirector instance.

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 always very straightforward.

Pretext - 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 timestamp providing information on when that entity was last updated. To optimize DeskDirector's database, we don't do real-time sync of every entity. Instead, we only sync recently updated entities based on this timestamp. Any entities that show a difference between these timestamps in your PSA and DeskDirector where the DeskDirector timestamp is further in the past, will be synced over.

The Problem with Merging

The main problem with merging PSA instances is that this last updated timestamp date for entities may not be recent. This means, data will be missing in DD's database and they will only be synced over once their last updated 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!

This is very likely to lead to irreversible data loss. We advise taking backups before any changes of this nature and consulting with a database administrator (DBA) before continuing.
"I have a new PSA instance, can I just update the integration credentials of my existing DD instance?"

Unfortunately, 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 previous integration. This can result in duplicate data, orphans, ghost entities and more. It is unpredictable.

Attachments can be a problem area for some clients if you use DeskDirector's File Storage. We can move these over for you as well, however, we will need the following:

  1. (Mandatory) A CSV or XLSX showing a strong relationship between IDs for tickets in your old and new PSAs
  2. (Optional but highly recommended) A CSV or XLSX showing a strong relationship between IDs for note/time entries in your old and new PSAs

Using a new PSA, or using a merged instance is still possible!

Here’s what needs to be done:

  1. Submit a support request with the DeskDirector support team advising whether you're switching or merging PSAs, which PSA you're moving to/merging with, and dates for when you will have the new PSA instance available and usable (this can before cutover)
  2. We will create a new DD instance for you under a temporary name
  3. You will then be advised to add the integration credentials for your new PSA instance to your new DeskDirector instance
  4. We will perform a full data sync and move over any Service Types/DeskDirector specific config if desired.
    Note: not all will translate if moving from ConnectWise to Autotask or visa versa.
  5. We will advise you to go through and configure anything further for behaviour/configuration that can't be ported over
  6. We will advise you to go through with testing to confirm that everything is functioning as expected on the new instance
  7. Once decided on a cutover date we will switch the DeskDiector instances so that your domain and custom domain points to the new instance
  8. We will leave the old instance up for a week or so to confirm everything is functioning as expected. Once confirmed everything has been successful, we will remove the old instance

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