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Calendar Items Created in Microsoft Exchange

If an SSSE user who is enabled for synchronization creates a calendar appointment in Microsoft Outlook, then that user is listed in Microsoft Outlook as the Organizer of the appointment. Additional participants are listed as Required Attendees or Optional Attendees, regardless of whether the attendees are employees or contacts.

A copy of the original calendar appointment is stored for each attendee who is using Microsoft Exchange client software. From this point on, any attendee can modify his or her own copy of the appointment. The attendee can choose whether or not to notify other attendees (including the organizer) of the change to his or her copy of the appointment. If other attendees are notified of a change to a calendar item, then the notifications provide information about the change that one attendee has made, but the notification has no effect on the data stored in other attendees' copies of the appointment.

Synchronization of Calendar Items

SSSE performs synchronization of Microsoft Outlook calendar appointments with Siebel CRM through the appointment Organizer's calendar only, provided that the Organizer is enabled to use SSSE. This means that appointments created in Microsoft Outlook, or changes or updates to appointments made in Microsoft Outlook, are only synchronized to Siebel CRM when the Organizer's records are synchronized, and not when appointment attendee records are synchronized.

Changes made by attendees to calendar appointments in Microsoft Outlook, for example, accepting or deleting meeting invitations, are propagated within Microsoft Outlook to the Organizer and other attendees. When SSSE synchronizes the Organizer, any changes made to the appointment in Microsoft Outlook by the Organizer or attendees since the last synchronization cycle are reflected in the Organizer's calendar and are synchronized with Siebel CRM.

At synchronization, the value of the Exchange Organizer field is mapped to the value of the Siebel Owner field, provided that the Organizer has a corresponding employee record in Siebel Business Applications. The values listed as Exchange Attendees are mapped to the Employees or Contacts fields in the Siebel Calendar Detail form, depending on whether or not each Attendee's Microsoft Exchange email address matches the email address for a Siebel employee record.

Employee participants can view the calendar item in their Siebel calendars. The calendar appointment is created regardless of each participant's Accept/Decline status.

NOTE:  Exchange Attendees must be specified on the Scheduling tab of the Microsoft Outlook calendar item. SSSE does not support entering attendees using the Contacts field on the Appointment tab of the calendar item.

Provided that the Organizer is sync-enabled, the data that appears in the Siebel calendar item is updated if the Organizer modifies the appointment in Microsoft Exchange, and subsequent synchronizations propagate the modifications to the attendees' copies of the appointment in Microsoft Exchange. If any attendee modifies the Siebel calendar item, then subsequent synchronizations propagate the modifications to attendees' copies of the appointment in Microsoft Exchange.

NOTE:  It is recommended that changes to calendar items created in Microsoft Exchange are made in Microsoft Exchange, not in Siebel Business Applications.

If the meeting Organizer does not have synchronization enabled, then the calendar item is synchronized with Siebel CRM for all attendees who have synchronization enabled, and a calendar (activity) record is created in Siebel CRM with the Siebel administrator as the owner. For additional information, see Special Handling When the Exchange Organizer Is Not Mapped or Enabled to Use SSSE.

About Contact Distribution Lists

If you specify a contacts distribution list as an attendee on the Scheduling tab of a Microsoft Outlook calendar item, then SSSE resolves the distribution list into its individual members when synchronizing the calendar item to the Siebel application. SSSE does not preserve the distribution list name during this operation. If the calendar item is modified in Siebel Business Applications, then the individual attendee names replace the original distribution list when the item is synchronized back to Microsoft Exchange. This functionality applies to distribution lists created in individual users' Contacts folders, and to distribution lists created in Active Directory at the domain local, global or universal levels.

If a calendar event such as a recurring meeting has a distribution list specified as an attendee, and if the distribution list is modified after the creation of the event, then newer members of the distribution list might see past instances of the event in their calendars, even though they were not originally invited to those instances.

Special Handling When the Exchange Organizer Is Not Mapped or Enabled to Use SSSE

If the Organizer who creates an Exchange calendar appointment in Microsoft Outlook is not enabled to use SSSE, and is not an employee recognized by the Siebel application, then SSSE uses the value of the Generic Siebel Organizer setting as the Organizer when synchronizing the appointment with the Siebel application. If the administrator has not configured a value for the Generic Siebel Organizer setting, then SSSE does not synchronize the calendar appointment.

NOTE:  If the Organizer who creates an Exchange calendar appointment in Microsoft Outlook is not enabled to use SSSE, then Siebel users cannot use their Siebel calendars to update the Siebel calendar item that is produced by synchronization of the appointment. Users are also unable to update the item in Microsoft Exchange; only the meeting organizer can do that.

Special Handling When an Exchange Attendee Is Not Enabled to Use SSSE

As long as at least one Microsoft Exchange participant is enabled to use SSSE, the calendar item is synchronized with the Siebel calendars of all valid employee attendees, even if some of those attendees do not have synchronization enabled.

Similarly, valid employee attendees are listed in the Employee field of the Calendar Detail form for the item.

A contact who is an Attendee for an Exchange calendar appointment is listed in the Contacts field of the Calendar Detail form for the synchronized item, provided that SSSE finds the contact already listed in the Siebel database. An unknown contact attendee is not listed in the Contacts field of the Calendar Detail form.

NOTE:  If an Exchange calendar appointment has any Attendees who are not enabled to use SSSE, whether those users are Siebel Users or contacts, then the Siebel user interface treats the record as read-only. The Organizer must make any updates to the item in Microsoft Exchange, and then SSSE must synchronize the changes in Siebel Business Applications.

Special Handling When an Exchange Attendee Deletes or Declines an Exchange Meeting

The results of deleting or declining a Microsoft Exchange meeting depend on whether or not the attendee has SSSE synchronization enabled:

• If the attendee has synchronization enabled, then declining or deleting a Microsoft Exchange meeting causes SSSE to remove that attendee from the Siebel calendar item.
• If the attendee does not have synchronization enabled, then declining or deleting an Exchange meeting does not cause any change in the Siebel calendar item's list of attendees, regardless of whether the change in Microsoft Exchange is made in the attendee's folder or in the Organizer's folder.

Related Topic

About Using SSSE with Calendar Records