Foundation Data
The foundation layer holds the raw collected data. Each row is a single answer to the combination of an entity, a question and a year. There are three ways an answer comes into existence, and each has its own tables:
| How the answer was produced | Tables | Docs |
|---|---|---|
| Collected from a public disclosure by our research process | revenue_facts, outcomes_facts, supporting_facts | Facts |
| Estimated by our lifecycle estimations where compelling evidence for the impact of a given product or service is demonstrable and quantifiable. | datapoints, datapoint_derivations, estimation_lifecycle | Estimations |
| Calculated from other answers (Collected or Calculated) by a KPI formula | kpi_results, kpi_calculation_trees | KPI results |
Most analysis does not need to query this layer directly — the
Outcomes table all_data already consolidates it into one
analysis-ready view, and its companion all_data_origins points back into
this layer. Come here when you need the underlying evidence: the exact
value as printed in a report, the source document and page number, or the
formula behind a calculated number.
All tables in this layer except the segments lookup are versioned —
filter is_current = TRUE (see Conventions).