2185319 - Microsoft Updates breaks SAP Sourcing Contract Generation

Introduction:

As, of recent, Microsoft released a series of security patches that may have been installed by your company.  Please, note that if you are running into issues generating Contracts and are finding that the following is true, please proceed with the steps that is attached here. Please, note the last section, Workaround, which will give you the steps to resolve the issue, short term.

Symptons:
Users are not able to generate Contracts, specifically, they are not able to generate Contract Document Templates in a number of ways
-  User logs in and is not able to generate a contract using existing contract document templates through a Master Agreement wizard
-  user logs in and is not able to generate a contract document template via setup

Log analysis to determine issue:
From, where the wordservice is installed, find the logs from
c:/fci/logs

please, note the following in the logs.  Pay attention to System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object and unable to insert the content file
abcd.docx

Details
AM    local3     ERROR                class="WordService".asmx.cs;sessionid=CBB66A7EA4247F17DD8284A658BC7549;username=-2147479548:104:sap support1;server=sap-esu-kmp01;method=insertDocContents;exception=System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.|   at Frictionless.Web.Services.WordService.insertDocContent(DocumentContent tempContent, AssemblyDocMsg msg, String tempPath, Boolean bStructured, Int32 index) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WordService\App_Code\WordService.asmx.cs:line 3363|   at Frictionless.Web.Services.WordService.insertDocContents(AssemblyDocMsg msg, String tempPath, Boolean bStructured) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WordService\App_Code\WordService.asmx.cs:line 3198;stacktrace=   at Frictionless.Web.Services.WordService.insertDocContent(DocumentContent tempContent, AssemblyDocMsg msg, String tempPath, Boolean bStructured, Int32 index) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WordService\App_Code\WordService.asmx.cs:line 3363|   at Frictionless.Web.Services.WordService.insertDocContents(AssemblyDocMsg msg, String tempPath, Boolean bStructured) in c:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WordService\App_Code\WordService.asmx.cs:line 3198       Unable to insert the content file Test.docx

Resolution:
The SAP Sourcing application is enabled for now for customers to utilize Contract Generation via a solution where the reliance on Microsoft and its associated .NET technology has been eliminated.
Please, see this for more information on the new CG.
http://scn.sap.com/community/sourcing/blog/2013/06/05/the-new-sap-sourcing-clm-docx-generation-service

 
New CG vs the old ( native ) CG:
Challenges with old contract generation service -
- Separate windows server is required, which adds to TCO
- Every time IT team applies a windows security patch to the windows server, Microsoft does not guarantee the stability of contract generation service.
- Contract documents needs to be sent back and forth between the windows server and SAP Sourcing server which may cause performance issues such as lengthy wait times to generate the contract.
- In case of issues with the contract generation service, debugging both the windows server and the sourcing server for the root cause analysis is required.  This can be a lengthy and costly process.

Resolution: New DOCX service
- New service will reduce TCO by not requiring additional windows server.-New service runs as a part of SAP Sourcing server and no separate configuration and installation is required thus provides high performance in generating the contracts.
- New service is not impacted by frequent security updates from Microsoft.
- It is recommended that customers should move to new DOCX Service ASAP.

Workaround:
Is, it unknown, if there's one or multiple security patches from Microsoft causing this error, so as a general rule of thumb, please uninstall any new patches dating back to when the error started.
We, are attaching a list here as examples of potential patches that can be identified as causing the problem. Yours, may vary. Then, restart the wordservice.

Attached example1, example2

Then, you may also want to uninstall and reinstall MS Word that is compatible with the version of the application that you're using.  This is not a required step, however, if you do find that the workaround does not resolve your issue, then, please take this additional step.
Ensure, that your new MS Word installation is configured to utilize fci.xsd and is encoded for UTF8.
Details on how to do this specific step can be found here or in our Installation/Upgrade Guides.

https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-55599

KBA , SRM-ESO-CG , Contract Generation for SAP Sourcing & CLM , Problem