OpenText Legal Hold - Microsoft Planner Integration and Automation

Common Integration Use Cases Between OpenText Legal Hold and Microsoft Planner

OpenText Legal Hold is designed to manage litigation holds, preserve relevant information, and support eDiscovery and compliance workflows. Microsoft Planner is used to organize work, assign tasks, track progress, and coordinate team execution. Together, they can connect legal hold governance with day-to-day operational task management, improving accountability and reducing manual follow-up across legal, compliance, IT, and business teams.

1. Create Planner Tasks When a New Legal Hold Is Issued

Direction: OpenText Legal Hold to Microsoft Planner

When legal or compliance teams issue a new hold, the integration can automatically create a Planner plan or task set for supporting teams such as IT, records management, HR, and business unit managers. Tasks may include identifying custodians, suspending deletion policies, preserving shared drives, or confirming receipt of hold notices.

Business value: Speeds up hold execution, reduces missed steps, and gives operational teams a clear task list with owners and due dates.

2. Track Custodian Acknowledgement Follow-Up Tasks in Planner

Direction: OpenText Legal Hold to Microsoft Planner

If custodians have not acknowledged a legal hold notice within a defined timeframe, OpenText Legal Hold can trigger follow-up tasks in Planner for legal operations or HR coordinators. These tasks can be assigned by region, department, or manager to ensure timely escalation and completion.

Business value: Improves compliance with acknowledgment deadlines and reduces manual tracking by legal staff.

3. Coordinate IT Preservation Actions Across Systems

Direction: OpenText Legal Hold to Microsoft Planner

Legal hold events often require IT to preserve email, file shares, collaboration sites, or endpoint data. The integration can generate Planner tasks for specific preservation actions, such as placing mailbox holds, disabling retention deletions, or exporting targeted content. Each task can include the custodian name, system, deadline, and reference to the hold matter.

Business value: Ensures preservation actions are assigned, visible, and completed on time across technical teams.

4. Update Legal Hold Work Status from Planner Task Completion

Direction: Microsoft Planner to OpenText Legal Hold

As operational teams complete tasks in Planner, status updates can be sent back to OpenText Legal Hold to reflect progress on hold implementation. For example, once IT confirms preservation or a manager confirms custodian notification, the hold record can be updated automatically.

Business value: Gives legal teams real-time visibility into execution without chasing updates through email or spreadsheets.

5. Escalate Overdue Legal Hold Tasks to Compliance or Legal Managers

Direction: Microsoft Planner to OpenText Legal Hold

If Planner tasks related to a legal hold become overdue, the integration can flag the hold matter in OpenText Legal Hold and notify legal or compliance managers. This can support escalation workflows for missed acknowledgements, delayed preservation actions, or incomplete custodian lists.

Business value: Reduces risk of noncompliance by surfacing delays early and enabling faster intervention.

6. Launch Matter-Specific Cross-Functional Work Plans

Direction: OpenText Legal Hold to Microsoft Planner

For major litigation or regulatory investigations, OpenText Legal Hold can initiate a Planner plan with structured task buckets for legal, IT, HR, and business stakeholders. Each bucket can contain tasks tied to the matter, such as identifying data sources, validating custodian lists, and confirming preservation exceptions.

Business value: Creates a consistent operating model for complex matters and improves coordination across departments.

7. Support Periodic Legal Hold Review and Release Activities

Direction: Bi-directional

When a legal hold is due for review, OpenText Legal Hold can create Planner tasks for legal counsel to validate whether the hold should continue, be narrowed, or be released. After review, the decision can be updated back in OpenText Legal Hold, and Planner tasks can be closed or reassigned for release actions such as restoring normal retention policies.

Business value: Helps organizations manage hold lifecycle reviews on schedule and avoid unnecessary over-retention.

These integrations are most valuable when legal hold administration requires coordinated execution across multiple teams. By linking OpenText Legal Hold with Microsoft Planner, organizations can turn compliance obligations into trackable work, improve accountability, and reduce operational friction.