Ongoing issues with Server-side integration for Microsoft Outlook – RESOLVED

There are currently ongoing issues for Office 365 customers using Server-side integration for Microsoft Outlook.

1. Deletion of visits when SAP Cloud for Customer is connected to Office 365
2. Synchronization was stopped by error (no data loss) when SAP Cloud for Customer is connected to Office 365

Cause:

1. 1. 1. On Jan 16 Microsoft started to roll out Exchange Online version 15.20.2644.21 which has regressions compared to previous versions of Exchange Online and compared to Exchange 2013-2019 family.At the moment, two support requests are open and are escalated to Microsoft.
         As updates to O365 take time to propagate, customers may have gotten affected anytime from 16-Jan-2020 and up to 19-Jan-2020 when issue was identified and synchronization for O365 users was suspended. Support cases: 18301130 18324425 are open with Microsoft with complete technical details provided

Action Taken by SAP:

1. Synchronization is suspended for all users running Office 365 to minimize impact.
   All non Office 365 users and Google mail users are synchronizing successfully with no impact.
2. Ability to force synchronization is temporarily prohibited to all users in order to not trigger synchronization while investigation/resolution is in progress.
3. In parallel to escalating support cases with Microsoft, the server-side development team is actively working on workaround solution.
   There are multiple issues identified with O365 and they are being addressed in parallel.
   Once development completes and we have completed a full round of validation, the patch will be deployed on all TEST and PROD landscapes and then Office 365 synchronization will be unblocked.

Recommendations:

For O365 users synchronization is temporarily suspended, and upon resuming will continue from the same state bringing records in sync.If there are pending changes – they will settle at that time, and if automatic sharing of calendars or emails is used – emails will be processed upon synchronization resume, so no information loss shall appear.

Next Steps and ETA:

1. 1. Upon resolution from Microsoft or availability of validated patch – whatever comes sooner, synchronization for O365 users will be unblocked.
      Sync has been re-enabled on all TEST and PROD tenants as of 28-Jan-2020.