Thanks to everyone who responded to this. It turned out that the issue was with the conversion of unicode strings - when I added the option into the jdbc connection string, it runs like a charm. So, now, my connection string includes the option of SendStringParametersAsUnicode=false.
A more detailed explanation of the problem and the solution is at http://www.hibernate.org/74.html#A15 <jdbc-connection-descriptor jcd-alias="pascrics1" platform="MsSQLServer" jdbc-level="2.0" driver="com.microsoft.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver" protocol="jdbc" subprotocol="microsoft:sqlserver://pascrics1:1433;DatabaseName=Diversified;SendStringParametersAsUnicode=false;SelectMethod=cursor" username="testuser" password="testuser%123" eager-release="false" batch-mode="false" useAutoCommit="1" ignoreAutoCommitExceptions="false" > <connection-pool maxActive="21" validationQuery="" /> <sequence-manager className="org.apache.ojb.broker.util.sequence.SequenceManagerNativeImpl" /> </jdbc-connection-descriptor> Regards, Alex Kotchnev Developer / Systems Analyst Diversified Information Technologies ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: If you have received this e-mail in error, please immediately notify the sender by e-mail at the address shown. This e-mail transmission may contain confidential information. This information is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity to whom it is intended even if addressed incorrectly. Please delete it from your files if you are not the intended recipient. Thank you for your compliance. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
