Sanitrust

Cloud platform for digital certification on DLT of cleaning and sanitizing activities to protect employee health and to guarantee the employer. Response to the need for post-Covid trust to revive the economic recovery.

The impact of the pandemic caused by the new Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 on global health, social and economic systems has highlighted how modern societies are particularly sensitive to unforeseen, random, non-linear phenomena, which introduce discontinuity and disorder. The capacity of political, social, health, economic, distributive systems, etc. to be resilient or even antifragile with respect to the event constitutes the defining element of survival with respect to discontinuity. The goal that is set is therefore to build models that can allow resilient responses, keeping as much as possible the same paradigm that preceded the event, or antifragile responses, gaining from disorder and discontinuity. The Italian political system is moving within this context to facilitate health, social and economic structures through measures designed to counter the spread of the coronavirus and facilitate the restart of the economic system. In this context, the streamlining of the ICT procurement procedures by the PA for the purchase of IT goods and services emerges, with particular relevance given by the legislation to innovative SMEs. In the post-pandemic scenario, these realities are strategic to accelerate the recovery of the country system, with their ability to rethink the future and the so-called "new normal". Among the provisions, the "Regulation of measures to combat and contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus in the workplace" of 14 March 2020, makes particular reference to aspects relating to environmental cleaning and sanitation. A recent survey by the consulting and research company Nomisma conducted on a sample of a thousand respondents, representative of the Italian population, published by the Adnkronos press agency, shows how the main desire of the Italian population for the post-emergency phase is to have health guarantees on the possibility on the one hand of treatment and on the other not to contract the virus. The arrival of a vaccine is the first wish of the Italians, hoped for by 71% of the respondents, while 52% are worried about having to leave the house. 41% of the population is frightened by the idea of ​​taking public transport and 39% by having close contacts (less than a meter) with other people. 58% of Italians ask for the use of protections both in the workplace and in all public places, while 52% ask for the use of new safety protocols to be adopted in any public place, a percentage of satisfaction that rises to 90 % in the case of bars and restaurants. In this context, the proposal of Teleconsys SpA looks to the future through digital anti-fragility enablers, offering a mechanism for responding to the need for trust for the recovery of economic activities with respect to measures to prevent the spread of contagion and a system designed to protect employers of work with respect to the activities to be carried out according to prevention. The SANITRUST project is built around some of the most cutting-edge digital paradigms, foundations of Industry 4.0 and the Machine Economy. Cloud computing, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, Mobile, Internet of Things, Microservices architectures and Distributed Ledger Technology are the technological paradigms underlying the proposed solution.

In particular, IOTA technology, a DLT alternative to Blockchain, is the cornerstone on which the proposal is based. The DLTs perform the function of storing data within a distributed and replicated structure so that no one is able to modify its content. The data is entered inside the ledger and cannot be subsequently modified or deleted. In a distributed data management system, there is a distribution of data on a network of nodes, with a replica on each node, thus identifying a scenario of division of decision-making power. The best known distributed registry system is Blockchain and in it the operation necessary for adding transaction data to the register is the so-called mining (creation of a block of transactions and validation of the block by the so-called miners through the Proof of Work (PoW). The validation operation is expensive, but the possible effort of a hacker to modify the validated transactions is even more expensive and practically unsustainable. The mining is rewarded through cryptocurrency tokens. The association of a transaction to a block includes a fee, an amount of cryptocurrency suitable to remunerate the miner who successfully inserts the transaction into the block. The mining mechanism suffers from problems related to any cartels of miners (Mining Pools), which in principle can make it vain the principle of decentralization, and the difficulty of scaling, or of validating large numbers of transactions per second. IOTA is a register distributed pr designed for applications in the IoT context, enabler of Machine2Machine business models and the so-called Machine Economy. The innovative and distinctive features consist of a software algorithm based on an directed acyclic graph (DAG, Directed Acyclic Graph) and a validation system for transactions and microtransactions in truly trustless and permissionless environments. An important aspect of DAGs is that they can be used to efficiently represent overlapping sequences in parallel and this is one of the most powerful features of IOTA. The IOTA implementation of the DAG is called Tangle. The Tangle and the distributed, asynchronous transaction validation mechanism, free of the blocks and miners that characterize Blockchain, are the peculiar characteristics of IOTA. The transactions are feeless and guaranteed by an asymmetric key cryptographic system designed on the Winternitz algorithm, which uses a quantum immune ternary arithmetic. Mining pools or the construction of private blockchain networks have resulted in a return to centralization, partially defeating the original intention of having a completely decentralized and democratic system. IOTA solves this problem by eliminating the concept of miner and blocking. Each individual transaction is entered into the Tangle by performing the calculation necessary for each individual consignment. Each transaction, to be correctly inserted in the Tangle, must validate two other previous ones, not yet validated. This effectively eliminates the difference between users and miners because validation is performed in a distributed and uniform way by all network participants. The absence of blocks and mining implies that the waiting time for the validation of transactions is very low. Being the consensus parallelized, and not concurrent like that of blockchain, one has the ability to scale infinitely with the increase in the number of nodes. The number of transactions per second grows proportionally with the capacity of the network, i.e. more nodes are part of the network and the faster the mechanism of consent and confirmation of transactions is put in place. IOTA is therefore theoretically infinitely scalable. urthermore, the absence of transaction fees implies the possibility of carrying out any type of transaction, even the so-called micro-transactions. The network participant who sends a transaction substantially "offers" its computing power to make the system secure, by associating an algorithm with variable difficulty to the transaction which it must resolve. A new transaction inserted in the Tangle is called a tip. Each transaction connects to two previous transactions, chosen in a pseudo-random way among those not yet referenced (tip). The connection to the two pseudo-random transactions involves the "confirmation" of these transactions. Programs are installed on the machines participating in the network, the IOTA nodes. P2P communication between these programs gives rise to the logical connections that form the IOTA network. The tip selection algorithm consists of the Monte Carlo method, MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo). The selected tips are checked according to a certain set of criteria. Invalid tips that fail the check are discarded and never referenced again. Consent in IOTA is intrinsic to the transaction issuance process. A transaction approves another by referencing it directly or indirectly. Direct approval occurs when a transaction references two others. Indirect approval occurs instead when there is a path between the new transaction and any other in the Tangle. Tip is a transaction not yet approved by anyone else. A transaction is said to be confirmed when it is validated directly or indirectly by all the tips.

Transactions verified directly or indirectly by a milestone are verified. You can reduce the size of the Tangle by eliminating most transactions with Snapshots. The data, however, is not lost because some particular nodes, called Permanode, allow you to keep the whole history of the Tangle inside. A further feature of IOTA is Masked Authenticated Messaging (MAM), a communication protocol that allows you to transmit or consult a stream of data encrypted on the Tangle. MAM is one of the most useful modules of the IOTA ecosystem. The ability to manage secure transactions without intermediaries in environments where the subjects of the transactions do not implicitly enjoy the trust of the other subjects makes IOTA a true digital enabler of antifragility, allowing you to implement secure digital relationships between the different subjects and to certify digitally such transactions. Based on the enabling technology described above, the solution designed by Teleconsys implements a model of digitization and guarantee of relationships, through the secure management of information. The Italian regulatory context guides the design of the solution. Legislative Decree 33 of 16 May 2020, the Prime Ministerial Decree of 17 May 2020, the Safety Protocol of 24 April 2020, the Checklist of the National Labor Inspectorate check are measures that guide behaviors and fulfilments and in particular direct business activities in terms of: a) management of information to workers; b) how to enter the company; c) hygiene precautions; d) use of personal protective equipment (PPE); e) supplier access methods; f) management of employee entry and exit; g) cleaning and sanitizing on the farm. The proposed solution consists of a digital cloud platform for the reliable, safe and immutable certification of the professional execution of cleaning, sanitizing and sanitizing operations of assets (e.g. workstations, printers, machinery, distributors snacks, etc.) and environments (common areas, meeting rooms, rooms, bathrooms, etc.) with the possibility of verification, by the user, of the actual execution of the same. The technologies described allow the integration of people, processes and things, creating the "Internet of Everythings" paradigm.

The solution is adaptable to multiple operational scenarios that require the implementation of safety protocols for the resumption of production activities and to provide confidence of workers and people. The value offered by the project and by the digital enablers considered can be summarized in a) activity certification, reputation system, payment automation for facility management companies that deal with the provision of cleaning, sanitation and sanitization activities; b) guarantee of cleanliness, hygiene and sanitation, trust for office workers; c) certification of the activities, protection of the employer for companies; d) guarantee for all customers and suppliers of companies; e) guarantee of implementation of the protocols defined for the institutions.

In the main scenario of sanitizing offices, the solution offers a customer journey of the following type:

• CREATION OF ASSETS - In each office of the Company the elements to be cleaned are identified (workstations, printers, machinery, distributors of snacks, etc.) and the spaces to be sanitized (common areas, meeting rooms, rooms, bathrooms, air conditioning systems, etc.), generating, printing and applying a suitable QR-code to each of them.
• ASSIGNMENT OF SERVICE COMPANIES - An NFC smartcard (or a beacon) is associated to each office in a unique and immovable way. Subsequently, the service companies (and the related authorized operators) are associated with the daily cleaning or periodic sanitization.
• ACTIVITY START CERTIFICATION - The operator of the Service Company, upon accessing the office to be cleaned or sanitized, reads the smartcard (beacon) via the App installed on his mobile device and enters the credentials of authentication, thus declaring the start of the activity and enabling the reading of the QR-codes associated with that office.
• RULE EXECUTION CERTIFICATION - The operator, at the end of the cleaning of an element or the sanitization of a space, frames the relative QR-code and certifies the correct execution of the activity, sending to the back-end your id, the id of the element or space on which it operated and the time-stamp, plus any predefined or free information.
• TRANSACTION SAVING - The back-end (developed by microservices) of the App writes the data on the distributed IOTA register, validates the request and publishes the data, making the transaction that certifies the cleaning to be certain, safe and immutable part of the operator of an item or sanitizing an office space.
• END OF ACTIVITY CERTIFICATION - At the end of the service, the operator reads again the smartcard (beacon) associated with the office where he operated, thus declaring the end of the activity (which can be notified) and disabling any further writing operation on his register for the assets of that office.
• VERIFICATION OF THE EXECUTION OF THE ACTIVITY - Each employee, upon his arrival at the office, will be able to verify, in AR, the correct cleaning of his workplace simply by framing the QR-code of the element. Similarly, the RSPP or the Security Officers will be able to verify that the spaces have been sanitized.
• REPORTING, NOTIFICATIONS, SMART CONTRACT - The platform, in addition to allowing different methods of notification (e.g. start and end of activity, cleaning or not of a work pruning to the employee who occupies it, ...), allows the creation of ad hoc reporting , both for the Company and for the Service Company, as well as the management of Smart Contracts between these subjects.

This journey can evolve, thanks to the fact that the solution is designed on a microservice architecture and that, thanks to the API gateway, it can be integrated with property, facility and workspace / workforce management platforms, as well as with ERP and CRM systems , or within the organizational model of Legislative Decree 231/01 and Legislative Decree 81/08, single text on health and safety at work. The Customer Journey illustrated for the office environment can be substantially extended and replicated without particular changes for Schools and Universities, Restaurants, Cinemas and Theaters, Smart Working Spaces, Trains and Planes, shared mobility vehicles, public transport, bank branches, bathing establishments , etc., or in countless areas where spaces and objects are shared between people or provide for their aggregation.

The Sanitrust solution is designed on a modern architecture based on Cloud, Microservices and API. The front-end layer exposes the user applications, web applications and mobile apps, for user interaction and the creation of high-level user experiences for all types of users involved (model of the custom delight, not the customer satisfaction). The microservices business layer exposes an API layer towards the front-end and towards the outside that allow to perform all the business functions, to perform the personal and environmental configurations, to manage authentication and profiling, to apply the buisness rule provided and to manage the workflow of events. The business layer interacts on the one hand with the application layer of the IOTA environment, which deals with the storage and recovery of the transactions managed in the distributed ledger, and on the other hand with the support database containing personal data, profiling and support for application management.

Methodologies used for the Application Lifecycle Management foresee, in an environment without functional silos, the analysis of the problem according to the approach envisaged by the Design Thinking, a start-up for the development of the lean-type solution, in which short cycles of prototype development (build) are followed by short measurement and verification cycles and, on the basis of these verifications, by useful learning activities for the subsequent short build cycle. The development phase starts from the start-up phase, in which the activities are oriented towards agile methods (Scrum and Less in a particular), within an approach in which the build is followed by the measurement, verification and collection of feedback, in an iterative-incremental cycle. In the Design Thinking phase, the approach to the problem starts from a change of perspective in terms of mentality, processes and tools. The goal is a dynamic work model in which the problem is creatively analyzed, understanding the needs of the user, imagining a wide range of possible solutions and gradually focusing on the dominant solution. The (recursive) methodology involves five phases: 1) Empathy - we try to understand the problem through user shadowing paradigms, without mental assessment and judgment superstructures. 2) Definition - data, key actors, challenges are identified. 3) Ideation - ideas are shared by alternating divergent and convergent phases in order to further enhance the creativity of individuals and give priorities. 4) Prototype - a prototype is modeled through mockups, storyboards, validation and fast iterations. 5) Test - checks what works and what does not work with respect to the model prototype, analyzing the impediments and iterating quickly. This approach leads to a vision of value from the perspective of people, bringing together three elements: technologies, people, organizations. The design that considers the person at the center helps the company in creating value: a delightful product for people creates value. The lean startup method is an approach to innovation that allows you to quickly check if the product meets your needs. The three cornerstones of the method are: build, measure, learn. The goal is to build an MVP (Minimum Viable Product), measure its effectiveness and possibly learn how to integrate and improve it. From a Lean perspective, the approach tends to reduce waste and focus only on what is really needed: all that is not quickly accepted is waste, waste. The agile Scrum (now universally known) and Less methods allow to divide the realization activities into timeboxed sprints, to focus the work team on the activities with respect to external influences and to quickly obtain product increases. The Less methodology allows to implement Scrum in multiple development contexts, sharing and coordinating the activities. The work plan for the implementation and go-live of the solution involves three phases. Phase 1 corresponds to the release of a Marketable Minum Viable Product, in which the basic functions of the application are present, with the management of the data and transactions envisaged in the Customer Journey, the implementation of the application workflow and the functions related to NFC communications , to the management of the QR Codes and the IOTA DLT. The go-live of the MVP is expected at the end of the fourth month from the start of the activities, preceded by the third month by a market validation milestone. Phase 2 involves the release of some advanced features such as augmented reality, automation of the process through beacons and management of notifications). This phase also allows the application to be consolidated and is scheduled for the end of the sixth month. At the end of the eighth month Phase 3 closes with the release of extended features such as those of Analytics, Smart Contract and, in particular, of opening the API gateway to the IOTA register, which allows the use of the register in different application contexts simply by interfacing the API layer with microservices. This aspect is of fundamental importance for scaling the business model, adapting it to other verticals and enabling new forms of revenue and value networks, such as Device as a Customer, Business to Things, M2M, DAO. The openness to the world and the application scenarios involving devices is, in particular, full of significant future developments, given the projections about the number of connected devices in the world in the coming years (75.44 billion in 2025).
Some new business models have a truly immediate approach, such as those of the food supply chain, the textile supply chain and Made in Italy in general. This allows to easily extend the target market, initially associated with Facility Management, Companies and PA, Business and Co-Working Spaces, Education, Transport, Hospitals, to new sectors such as agro-food, textiles, manufacturing.
The proposed business model, also considering the application solutions present on the market today, lead us to affirm that the solution does not meet real competitors on the market, as much as coopetitors, both in the field of facility and worspace management solutions and in the field of solutions in the general sector of health and safety at work. The criteria that differentiate the SANITRUST solution and offer a competitive advantage are: availability of a demonstrator; integration of multiple skills and knowledge of IoTA technology; to be First Mover, with a possible quick entry on the market thanks to a large pipeline of stakeholders; have a large portfolio of new scenarios and ideas for use in other areas.

The solution is currently at an intermediate stage of construction and we have developed a MVP with a minimun integrated package: Smart Card infrastructure and related initialization software, API to the IOTA nodes for writing to the distributed register, Odyssey platform for hosting the front-end and back-end services of the solution (the platform is IoT native), a basic set of the front-end layer and user experience and of the asset registry configuration services. The Analytics system has also started, but longer times are expected for it.