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About UTC System Preferences

The global time zone feature makes use of two UTC-related system preferences:

• Universal Time Coordinated. Set to TRUE for UTC deployments (and set to TRUE by default). As described in Converting Historical Data to UTC, the UTC conversion utility sets this system preference to TRUE as its last step after completing the UTC conversion process. You do not need to set this system preference directly.
• Default Time Zone. Specifies a time zone that is to be used when the Time Zone field in the current user's profile is NULL, as described in About UTC Data Conversion. This system preference has no default value.

  For example, for a company with the majority of employees in California, you might set this system preference to (GMT-08:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada); Tijuana. The value you enter must correspond to the name of the time zone as represented in the Time Zone Administration view. For more information, see Administering Time Zones.

  NOTE:  If you deploy with UTC, you must specify a value for Default Time Zone. Otherwise, incorrect time stamp values will be created and displayed in any case where no time zone preference is specified for an individual given user.

  For information about setting this system preference, see Setting UTC System Preferences.

NOTE:  If you are not using UTC and the Universal Time Coordinated system preference is FALSE, the time stamps for records use the local time set for the operating system clock of the Siebel Server machine, which can use any time zone. The Default Time Zone system preference is never used if Universal Time Coordinated is FALSE.