Switching
Export three lists from the KACE Systems Management Appliance and drop them into Admin → Import. No agent on the appliance, no API key, no services engagement.
Step one
KACE exports the columns a list shows: add them, then Choose Action → Export and pick CSV. Menu names follow Quest's KACE SMA 14.1 documentation (older appliances say Help Desk, not Service Desk).
| List | Where in KACE | Columns Beacon reads |
|---|---|---|
| Users | Settings → Users → Choose Action → Export | Full Name, Email, Role, Location, Work Phone, ID. Administrator becomes an admin, Help Desk an agent, everyone else a requester. |
| Assets | Asset Management → Assets → the asset type's view → Choose Action → Export | Name (the asset tag), Asset Type, Serial Number, Model, Manufacturer, Asset Status, Location, Assigned To, Purchase Date, Warranty Expiration, Cost, Vendor, Notes, ID |
| Tickets | Service Desk → Tickets → the queue, every status → Choose Action → Export | Number, Title, Summary, Status, Priority, Category, Impact, Submitter, Owner, Queue, Device, Asset, Due Date, Created, Modified, Time Closed, Resolution, and the queue's custom fields |
UTF-8 CSV up to 5 MB, about 20,000 rows. Split a large ticket export by year and import oldest first.
Pick Users, Assets or Tickets, choose Quest KACE, drop the CSV.
Columns are mapped for you. Tick extras such as Impact and Queue.
Live progress, totals, unmatched values to fix, and a CSV of row errors.
Statuses map like this. New → new. Opened, Reopened, Escalated → open. Waiting on Customer, Need More Info, Waiting on Third Party, Waiting Overdue → pending. Stalled → on hold. Resolved → resolved. Closed → closed. High, Medium, Low → high, normal, low. Anything else takes your default and lands in the unmatched list.
Step three
New requests go to Beacon. Historical lookups can still use KACE.
Forward helpdesk@yourschool.org to your address at tickets.beaconhelpdesk.com.
Anything not yet imported is still there, with its comments and attachments.
At cut-over, export the tickets changed since the switch and import them.
What it costs
No onboarding fee, no implementation fee.
Export, import, check the counts, run again.
Every module, unlimited agents, no card, no sales call, no auto-conversion.
$1 per student per year with every module, $900 per year minimum, locked for three years. Or Starter, free for good.
Pro, for teams that count agents rather than students, is on Pricing.
A realistic afternoon
A school of about a thousand students on Microsoft 365.
| 1:00 | Create the organization. Ten minutes on the sign-up page. |
| 1:15 | Single sign-on. Admin → Single sign-on → Microsoft: add your domain and turn it on. |
| 1:45 | Sites and teams. Add each building and the Technology, Facilities and Events teams. |
| 2:00 | Import users. Drop the KACE Users export. |
| 2:20 | Import assets. Drop the Assets export, fix the unmatched list, re-run. |
| 2:45 | Import tickets. Drop each queue's export, lowest number first. |
| 3:15 | Categories and the portal. Show the categories staff should pick. |
| 3:30 | Email. Forward the help desk mailbox and send a test. |
| 3:45 | Automations. Rebuild the KACE ticket rules you keep. |
| 4:00 | Phones. Technicians sign in to the mobile web app on their phones and type ten tags into Scan on the Assets page to spot-check the import. The iOS app, in testing on TestFlight, adds the camera scanner. |
| 4:30 | Announce. One email to staff with the portal link. |
Questions
No. Beacon reads the CSV files KACE exports from its Users, Assets and Tickets lists. The import wizard, single sign-on and the portal are product features. If you get stuck, email hello@beaconhelpdesk.com and a person answers within one business day.
Not if you turn on Keep the exported ticket numbers and import oldest first: a KACE number is reused where it is higher than the last one Beacon assigned and unused, and Beacon's counter jumps ahead so new tickets keep numbering upward. Either way the KACE number stays on every imported ticket.
No. Imported rows send no notifications, run no automations, start no SLA clocks, and are not triaged by AI. A ticket already past its KACE due date is recorded as breached quietly.
Categories arrive as Parent::Child paths and are created with their parents, hidden from the portal until you show the ones staff should pick. Impact, Queue, Device and the queue's custom fields are kept on each ticket as fields under their own names, so nothing from the export is lost.
Comments and work notes are not in the ticket list export; a KACE report that lists comments per ticket can be imported as one history note per ticket. Attachments are not in any CSV export. Ticket rules, processes, SLAs and surveys are rebuilt in Beacon rather than imported.
Yes. KACE stays on your own server for as long as you like. New requests go to Beacon; at cut-over, export the tickets changed since the switch and import that file. Rows whose number was imported before update the same ticket, and new ones are created.
Yes. Each category on the portal carries its own questions, the team it routes to and its SLA, so a staff member picks Tech Request, Events Request or Facilities Request on one page and the request lands in the right team's queue. Add a department by adding a category and a team.
Yes. Admin → Single sign-on → Microsoft: add your domains and turn it on. People imported from KACE sign in with the school account they already have; nobody needs a new password.
Yes, on every plan, at any time: a JSON bundle from Settings and CSV from Reports. If you leave, nothing is held.
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