Methodology · where the answers come from

A method, not a questionnaire.

Most "maturity assessments" are a quiz wired to a sales funnel. dxpert's assessment method is a structured way of diagnosing maturity, designing the target architecture, and sequencing the roadmap — built on what actually separated the industrial operators who succeeded from the ones who stalled.

The foundation

A practical, data-centric Digital Platform — not a reference-model poster.

The technological foundation of digital transformation has four jobs, in order: connect and collect the data, contextualize and normalize it into reusable information, expose the present (real-time visibility), and expose the past (governed history). Get these right and AI has something solid to stand on. Skip them and every model is built on sand.

Industrial data sources converging into one unified platform, producing a rising trend consumed by people and applications

Around that sit the operating disciplines that keep it real: a governed event-driven data backbone (a unified namespace) across OT and IT, edge-driven and lightweight by default, with security and ownership built in rather than bolted on.

This architecture isn't just how we assess — it's executable. The UNS Generator instantiates all four platform capabilities from your own equipment hierarchy, and Our technology explains the curated model and knowledge graph the whole thing runs on.

What the method synthesizes

It stands on the established frameworks — and goes past them.

dxpert's assessment method uses the recognized industrial standards and maturity lenses as inputs and fit-tests, never as the architecture. We speak their language so your team and your auditors can too.

Framework / lensHow the method uses it
ISA-95 / IEC 62264Structure for operations and enterprise-control integration — MES/MOM scope, hierarchy, transactions.
IEC 62443The OT/ICS security architecture lens — zones, conduits, target security levels.
NIST CSF 2.0Enterprise cybersecurity governance and risk profiles, complementing IEC 62443.
ACATECH maturity indexA progression lens (computerization → adaptability) to explain where you are and what's next.
VAULTIS data-readinessA test of whether data is ready for AI: visible, accessible, understandable, linked, trustworthy, interoperable, secure.
OPC UA · MQTT / Sparkplug · MTConnect · AASInteroperability and event-driven movement — fit-tests for the data layer, mapped to roles, never treated as the architecture.

We treat RAMI 4.0 as a theoretical reference model, not a foundation, and the Digital Thread as a supporting pattern — not the base for the platform.

From method to output

One method, two outputs today — more depth coming.

dxpert's assessment method is a strategy, maturity, and architecture framework — not a quiz question bank. It grounds two things you can get today: the free diagnostic, a preliminary, self-reported signal you can run in minutes, and the board-ready roadmap, a sequenced, fundable plan that also tells you which paid services to commission next — the namespace export, agents, ongoing advisory. Everything past the roadmap is execution of what it calls for.

Try the preliminary diagnostic