Pesticide use reduction in arable cropping systems has become a priority of public policies. To meet the objectives of reducing pesticide use by 50%, it is not only relevant to improve the efficiency of crop protection and to substitute non-chemical solution to pesticide but it is also necessary to consider redesigning cropping systems and exploring really innovative breakthroughs. It is equally important to assess all the economic, social and environmental impacts, be them direct or indirect, of proposed innovative systems. How can we design really innovative solutions and be able to assess them as completely as possible? DEXiPM is an ex ante multi-criteria assessment tool which make it possible (i) to compare, as early as possible, innovative systems with conventional systems, (ii) to select those systems which are the most promising ones and which would be further tested in-field, and (iii) to identify the conditions which could make their adoption easier. The ability to analyse and compare innovative systems using DEXiPM should prove valuable not only in estimating the overall sustainability of the systems but, more importantly, in shedding light on the value of all the criteria under analysis. Thus further improvements can be discussed and tested, resulting in better proposals for innovative systems. And because the context (political, social, economical etc) is taken into account in the model, DEXiPM can also assess those innovative systems which may not be feasible or efficient today, but which might be sustainable 'tomorrow' in a different context