How the reductions get made.

Notes on OpenText and Micro Focus audit defense, written from the work itself. Start with the cross cutting audit mechanics below, then follow a product cluster through its defense track. The single best starting point is the playbook.

Pillar · The Playbook 2026

The complete OpenText audit defense playbook for 2026.

The seven day notice window, the list price remedy, the Additional License Authorizations, metric traps across every product line, indirect access, and converting a finding into a clean OpenPass agreement. The map to everything else here.

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Audit Mechanics · Cross Cutting

Audit MechanicsHow to respond to an OpenText seven day audit noticeThe week that sets the whole number, and how to use it. Audit MechanicsWhat to do in the first 48 hours after an audit noticeThe moves that protect your position before anything reaches the vendor. Audit MechanicsThe deemed acquisition at list price clause explainedWhy a shortfall is priced at the least favourable rate, and how it is contested. Audit MechanicsBack maintenance and first year maintenance on a findingThe two support charges stacked on top of the license number. Audit MechanicsWho pays for an OpenText audit and how cost recovery worksThe audit cost reimbursement clause and where it overreaches. Audit MechanicsWhy compliance is the sole responsibility of the licenseeThe clause that shifts the burden, and what it really requires. Audit MechanicsInside the OpenText global software compliance teamHow Compliance Managers assemble a finding and run the true up. Audit MechanicsWhat OpenText can and cannot demand during an auditThe limits on the right to copy records and run scripts. Audit MechanicsIndirect access in OpenText and Micro Focus auditsWhen an integration or portal pulls extra users into the count. Audit MechanicsTrue up negotiation tactics under audit pressureHow the closing negotiation runs and how to hold the defended figure. Audit MechanicsChoosing a single controlled channel during an auditWhy one channel for all vendor contact protects the outcome. Audit MechanicsBuilding an effective license position before the vendor script runsThe independent reconstruction that anchors every rebuttal.

By Product Cluster

Track 01

ECM & Documentum

Seat counts, service accounts, repository sprawl, deployments.

Track 02

Fortify & AppSec

Scan submitters versus repository access, perpetual versus term.

Track 03

ArcSight & Security

EPS burst versus sustained, volume, connectors, identities.

Track 04

ALM & LoadRunner

Named versus concurrent, Vuser counting, environments.

Track 05

ALA & Entitlement

Authorization interpretation, bundling, version entitlement.

Track 06

Exstream & CCM

Volume metrics, output channels, document overcharge.

Track 07

COBOL & Mainframe

Cores, MIPS, workload, runtime versus development.

Track 08

OpenPass Negotiation

Post audit conversion, dual entitlements, audit protections.

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