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Account-to-Contact Relationships

In Siebel applications, a contact can have multiple associated accounts, but in Outlook this is not the case. When synchronizing contact information, only the primary account in the Siebel application is exported or synchronized with Microsoft Exchange Server.

If a new account is added to a Business Contact in Outlook, that account is made the primary Account for that Contact when it is synchronized in the Siebel application. Any accounts previously associated with that Contact remain associated but are not primary.

CAUTION:  Users must not delete the association between an Account and a Contact in Outlook. Users must delete the association in the Siebel application. The limitation is due to the fact that when you delete the association in Outlook, the delete operation causes the next Account in line to become the Primary Account for the Contact.

Consider a case where a Contact C1 is associated with 10 Accounts A1...A10 with A1 being the primary. When this contact is synchronized in Exchange, the Account A1 becomes the value for the Company field. If the user clears the Company field in Outlook, then SSSE deletes A1 from the Account MVG for the Contact. In the process, A2 (next Account record) becomes primary and this change is synchronized in Exchange. The end-result is that the user who cleared A1 now sees A2 in its place. This has the potential for confusion and data loss.