Welcome to Buxton and the data transfer process. This set of articles will help you identify what type and format of data to send to Buxton. Please reference the Required Data section of your contract for specific data needs and the Timeline section for expected timing of the data transfer.
This intro article gives you a high-level overview of the data transfer process, data security, file formats, and incremental data updates.
Next, select the article most relevant to you based on your industry type. Each article will go into detail about the specific data fields required.
The industry articles are:
Data Transfer Process Overview
The data transfer process is a collaborative effort between Buxton and client. Our priority is to ensure that data provided is a comprehensive and accurate look so that we can provide you with the best solutions.
Data Security
Client confidence and Data Security are critical to all we do at Buxton. Additional details not noted below, but related to Buxton’s data policies, are available upon request and you can find a high level summary here: https://www.buxtonco.com/security-statement
Data Policies:
Data should be transmitted to Buxton utilizing a Buxton-hosted secure file transfer protocol (SFTP), unless otherwise agreed to by all parties.
Buxton encourages all clients to encrypt all data being transferred. Buxton’s public encryption key is available upon request.
Buxton will retain original client-provided data for the minimum length of time required, as called out in the Buxton Data Retention Policy, unless otherwise noted within a client contract.
Buxton will not accept any data files that include Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, credit card numbers, or other personally sensitive fields. If you submit a data file that includes any of these fields, the file will immediately be purged from our system, and you will need to resubmit the data.
File Requirements
The following components may be required for your data transfer. These can be provided as separate files or combined where appropriate:
Locations – Basic descriptive/geographic data about each open, closed, and pipeline location.
Metric of performance – Typically sales or visits (see the Required Data section of your contract), this data will be used as the dependent variable of your analysis. It should be represented as total sales/visits by location, month, and department (where applicable).
Transactions/Encounters – Details of customer purchases or patient encounters with basic descriptive, demographic, and most importantly, geographic data about your customers/patients. This data should come as one file for all locations and dates, not separate files by location.
Fiscal Period Calendar - If sales/visits are not reported by calendar months.
Data Dictionary/Business Rules (where available)
Format Requirements
Buxton requires all data to be provided in pipe delimited text files (.txt) or (.csv) files, unless otherwise communicated.
All files must include a header row to ensure proper matching.
A data dictionary is recommended to ensure proper interpretation of the data.
If a data field contains a pipe character (|), please enclose that field in double quotes (“”).
Please ensure that carriage returns are only present at the end of a row.
File Naming Conventions
The file names should be a concatenation of the company name and the type of data. For example, a transmission would include the following files:
URBN_STORES.txt, CSC_LOCATIONS.txt, or CMD_FACILITIES.txt
REDWING_SALES.txt or ACD_VISITS.txt
JORDANS_TRANSACTIONS.txt or AMH_ENCOUNTERS.txt
Please INCLUDE column headers in each file.
Data Updates
If incremental data updates are agreed to by both parties, Buxton has a defined approach. You will use the same SFTP that was setup for your original data transfer to upload incremental files. Typically, an additional meeting is necessary between the two parties to coordinate frequency of feeds and ensure that duplication of records is not an issue.
General
All future data submissions will follow the same formatting requirements as the initial submission.
The Client and Buxton will agree upon a specific frequency and timing of data updates (for example, data submission will be complete on the 5th of each month by 8:00 AM central).
Locations
All data fields in the Locations file will be updated in the Buxton databases by matching on location number.
Any new location numbers that were not present in previous data submissions will result in a new location record being added to the Buxton database.
Any locations numbers that are in the Buxton database but are NOT found in a locations file submission will result in the location record being deleted from the Buxton database.
Sales/Visits
Any sales/visits records in the Buxton database that match to a new sales/visits file on the location number and month fields (and optionally, department) will result in the record being updated with the new sales/visits total in the updated data.
Any records in a sales/visits file that do not match to the Buxton database on the location number and month fields (and optionally, department) will result in a new sales/visits record in the Buxton database.
After every update, an audit will be performed on the Buxton database to identify if any gaps (i.e. missing months) have been detected in the sales/visits data.
Transactions/Encounters
All data fields in the transactions/encounters file will be updated in the Buxton databases by matching on the customer/patient ID field.
Any new customer/patient IDs that were not present in previous data submissions will result in a new customer record being added to the Buxton database.
Customers/Patients will NOT be deleted from the Buxton database if their corresponding customer/patient ID is not found in a data submission.
New transaction/encounter records will only be ADDED to the Buxton database. Due to the complexity of this data piece, no pre-existing records will be updated based on new data. Any updates to historical data will be handled on an ad-hoc basis.
After every update, an audit will be performed on the Buxton database to identify if any gaps (i.e. missing months) have been detected in the transaction/encounter data.
Tags: Data Transfer, File format, File Requirements, Format Requirements, Data Updates, Data Requirements