OpenText Legal Hold - DeSL Integration and Automation

Common Integration Use Cases Between OpenText Legal Hold and DeSL

OpenText Legal Hold and DeSL serve very different but complementary business functions. OpenText Legal Hold helps legal and compliance teams preserve relevant information for litigation, investigations, and regulatory matters. DeSL supports fashion and retail product development, PLM, and supply chain collaboration, where large volumes of product, supplier, and project data are created and updated rapidly. Integrating the two platforms helps ensure that product development records, supplier communications, and related content are preserved when legal or regulatory risk arises, while reducing manual coordination between legal, compliance, and product teams.

1. Legal hold on product development records tied to litigation

Data flow: DeSL to OpenText Legal Hold

When a product line, supplier relationship, or design process becomes subject to litigation, DeSL can send relevant project records, design files, BOM history, change requests, and approval logs to OpenText Legal Hold for preservation. This prevents deletion or alteration of critical PLM content while the matter is active.

• Preserves design iterations, technical packs, and approval trails
• Supports product liability, IP, or contract disputes
• Reduces risk of spoliation by automating hold placement on relevant records

2. Custodian identification from DeSL project and supplier teams

Data flow: DeSL to OpenText Legal Hold

DeSL can provide team membership, project ownership, and supplier collaboration data to help legal teams identify custodians quickly. This is useful when a hold must be issued to designers, merchandisers, sourcing managers, or external collaborators involved in a specific product program.

• Speeds custodian scoping for legal hold notices
• Improves accuracy of hold distribution across cross-functional teams
• Reduces manual research by legal and compliance staff

3. Preservation of supplier communications and change approvals

Data flow: DeSL to OpenText Legal Hold

DeSL often contains supplier-related workflows, including sample approvals, material substitutions, compliance confirmations, and change requests. If a dispute or investigation arises, these records can be placed under legal hold to preserve the full decision history and communication trail.

• Protects evidence for sourcing disputes and quality claims
• Maintains auditability of supplier decisions and exceptions
• Supports internal investigations involving procurement or compliance issues

4. Legal hold release notification back to DeSL

Data flow: OpenText Legal Hold to DeSL

When a legal hold is lifted in OpenText Legal Hold, DeSL can receive a release notification so product teams know which records can return to normal retention and lifecycle processing. This helps avoid unnecessary restrictions on product development content after the matter is closed.

• Restores standard document and record management workflows
• Prevents over-retention of product data
• Helps teams resume normal deletion and archiving policies safely

5. Triggering holds from risk events in PLM workflows

Data flow: DeSL to OpenText Legal Hold

Specific events in DeSL, such as a product recall, supplier termination, failed compliance review, or major design change, can trigger a review workflow that initiates a legal hold in OpenText Legal Hold. This creates a controlled process for preserving records when business risk escalates.

• Links operational events to legal preservation actions
• Improves response time for recalls and investigations
• Creates a documented chain of custody for affected records

6. Synchronization of matter-specific document lists

Data flow: Bi-directional

OpenText Legal Hold can maintain the official matter scope, while DeSL can provide the latest list of related product files, specifications, and project artifacts. This bi-directional exchange keeps the legal hold inventory current as product records evolve during the lifecycle of a matter.

• Ensures newly created or updated records are captured
• Reduces gaps in preservation coverage
• Supports ongoing matters with long product development cycles

7. Compliance evidence preservation for regulated product categories

Data flow: DeSL to OpenText Legal Hold

For products subject to regulatory scrutiny, such as apparel with restricted materials, labeling requirements, or supplier compliance obligations, DeSL can pass relevant compliance artifacts to OpenText Legal Hold when an audit, investigation, or legal matter begins. This ensures evidence is preserved in its original context.

• Protects certification records, test results, and compliance approvals
• Supports audit defense and regulatory inquiries
• Reduces the risk of missing evidence across distributed teams

8. Centralized reporting on held product and supplier records

Data flow: Bi-directional

OpenText Legal Hold can provide hold status and matter metadata, while DeSL can provide counts and classifications of affected product records, suppliers, and projects. Together, the platforms can support reporting for legal, compliance, and operations leaders on what is held, where it resides, and which teams are impacted.

• Improves visibility into operational impact of legal holds
• Supports executive reporting and matter management
• Helps prioritize workarounds for held content in active development programs