Home › Glossary
Reference · Licensing Terms

The audit vocabulary, in plain terms.

An OpenText or Micro Focus audit runs on a handful of defined terms, and the definition of each is often where the dispute lives. These are the ones that decide findings. Each links to the page that owns the concept. For the full picture, read the audit defense playbook.

Additional License Authorizations (ALAs)
The licensing document that governs most Micro Focus products now in the OpenText estate. ALAs define each product's metric, capacity unit, bundling rules, and version entitlement, and they are the key trap area in any audit of the acquired estate. See our ALA and entitlement review track.
OpenPass
OpenText's enterprise licensing framework: a single contract with a defined term and dual entitlements that allow an old and a new deployment to run in parallel during migration. Often proposed as the resolution to a finding. See the OpenPass negotiation track.
Seven day notice
The notice period OpenText gives before an audit, accompanied by the right to copy relevant records. The most decisive week of the engagement. See how to respond to a seven day audit notice.
Deemed acquisition at list price
The contractual remedy under which a noncompliant licensee is treated as having acquired the licenses at the then current list price, the least favourable rate available. See the deemed acquisition at list price clause explained.
Back maintenance
Support and maintenance charged retroactively for the period of a shortfall, plus first year maintenance on the newly deemed licenses. Stacked on top of the license figure. See back maintenance and first year maintenance on a finding.
Audit cost recovery
The clause requiring the licensee to reimburse the costs OpenText incurs performing the audit. See who pays for an OpenText audit.
Effective license position
The independent reconstruction of what an organisation actually deploys against what it is entitled to use. The anchor for every rebuttal. See building an effective license position before the vendor script runs.
Named user
A license metric tied to identified individuals with access, regardless of whether they use the product. The counting of service and dormant accounts as named users is a recurring ECM overclaim. See the ECM and Documentum track.
Concurrent user
A metric tied to simultaneous active sessions rather than identified individuals. The named versus concurrent distinction is central to ALM and LoadRunner findings. See the ALM and LoadRunner track.
Events per second (EPS)
The throughput metric for ArcSight, where burst rates are routinely read as sustained ones to inflate a finding. See the ArcSight and security track.
Vuser
The virtual user metric for LoadRunner performance testing, counted per concurrent simulated user. A frequent source of overcounting. See the ALM and LoadRunner track.
Scan submitter
In Fortify, the user who actually submits code for analysis, as distinct from anyone with repository access. The seat count should follow submitters, not access. See the Fortify and AppSec track.
Indirect access
Use of a product through an integration, portal, or API rather than directly, which a finding may use to pull extra users into the count. See indirect access in OpenText and Micro Focus audits.
True up
The negotiation in which a vendor and licensee settle a measured shortfall. Run by OpenText Compliance Managers after the entitlement review. See true up negotiation tactics under audit pressure.
Core and capacity metrics
Licensing tied to physical or virtual cores, MIPS, or workload, used for COBOL and Enterprise Server. Counting every core rather than allocated capacity inflates the finding. See the COBOL and Enterprise Server track.
Non production environment
Development, test, staging, and disaster recovery systems, frequently counted against production entitlement in an opening finding. A standard line to strip in the Rebut phase. See the four Rs method.

A term decided your finding the wrong way? Open a case.

Definitions are where audits are won and lost. We hold each one to the contract. Founded in 2020 by former vendor compliance leadership. Not affiliated with OpenText Corporation.

Open A Case →