About Response Assessment module (RAM)

The Response Assessment module (RAM) is a set of innovative components and services and is part of the Symantec Control Compliance Suite (CCS) strategy. RAM is an optional external module for CCS. RAM formalizes, standardizes, and documents the assessments and audits that are a part of an organization. RAM lets you construct a complex business evaluation from prepackaged content packs.

The following are the business challenges:

Complexity of regulatory compliance
Cost of regulatory compliance
Increased accountability from the shareholders, government, and industry
Increased civil and criminal liabilities for noncompliance

An individual or corporation can make the informed decisions that are based on the questionnaires. Often, the information is used to gain an understanding of the beliefs and behaviors of a target population under a given set of circumstances. Responses to the questions provide a snapshot, which reflects these current beliefs and behaviors.

The assessment technologies problems were the following:

Assessments were difficult to create
Assessments were not accessible from other applications
Assessments were not standardized
Past assessments were difficult to manage
Past assessments were difficult to store
Assessments were not secure

Previous approaches to assessments typically meant that each executive or manager would have their own Excel spreadsheet. The spreadsheets had no uniformity because they reflected each executive or manager's particular concerns. An assessment from one executive or manager may conflict with other collected assessments. The assessment may not reflect an important business question or an organization 's goals. The members of upper management must spend the time to compile the assessments. The members review the compilation result to make judgments about the organization's compliance.

RAM extends the assessment strategy. Executives, managers, and the members of upper management see the same questions. Executives and managers may provide uniform responses. The responses are easily compiled and the members of upper management can make more informed business decisions.

RAM is a comprehensive assessment solution. When the RAM Server is installed, assessments are stored in an SQL Server database and are accessible from the Web. Invited users can create responses from any Web connection. With the necessary permissions, users can generate reports, export report detail information, and create the charts that visualize the information. RAM increases an organization's ability to manage the flow of information.

RAM is a management tool that collects the following:

Assessments	Current and new assessments
Audits	Current and new audits
Risk alignment	Supports a risk analysis process

Executive and managers can accomplish the following:

Measure and evaluate their organization's business process
Distribute the assessments at regular intervals.
Improve their organization with an internal process.
Initiate self-assessments at regular intervals

Executives and managers can measure and evaluate the aspects of the following business processes:

Compliance
Business continuity
Information security
Physical security
Governance
Protection of intellectual property

A Response Assessment module assessment is taken through a process that is known as the assessment lifecycle.

The following are the parts of the assessment lifecycle:

Questionnaire creation	The process that defines the questionnaire. The creation process may include questionnaire property definitions and the questionnaire layout.
Questionnaire delivery	The process to deliver the questionnaire to the intended attesters.
Response creation	The activities that focus on the response.
Report management	The activities that focus on the creation of reports that are based on the submitted responses. Responses can be grouped together, exported to an Excel spreadsheet, and used to create charts.
Questionnaire management	The activities that focus on the administration of an assessment.