Methods and apparatus for automatically generating presentations
Systems and methods for generating slide presentations enable a user (e.g., a sales professional) to generate presentations tailored to a specific presentation target (e.g., a potential customer) with the click of a button. An exemplary method includes: collecting information relating to a number of presentation targets; creating a number of presentation definition templates, each presentation definition template including a number of slide descriptions, certain of the slide descriptions including information placeholders; and generating a slide presentation for the particular presentation target in accordance with the slide descriptions of a selected one of the presentation definition templates, wherein collected information relating to the particular presentation target is substituted for the information place holders in the slide descriptions of the selected one of the presentation definition templates.
1. A computer-implemented method for generating a slide presentation for a presentation target, comprising:
creating at least one presentation definition template comprising a plurality of component definitions, wherein one or more of the component definitions has an associated information bookmark;
associating a query condition with each component definition, each query condition determining whether the associated component definition is to be included in a slide presentation;
providing a mapping between each information bookmark and associated opportunity-specific data; and
in response to a command to generate a slide presentation for the presentation target, the computer performing the acts of:
determining whether to include each of the plurality of component definitions in the slide presentation based on its associated query condition;
for each of the component definitions determined to be included in the slide presentation, automatically replacing the associated information bookmark with its mapped opportunity-specific data to generate the slide presentation, wherein said determining uses the opportunity-specific data, and said determining and said replacing are performed without human interaction; and
storing the generated slide presentation.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the presentation target is a potential customer of a sales organization, and wherein the opportunity-specific data relates to potential sales opportunities between the sales organization and the potential customer.
3. The method of claim 1 further comprising associating a theme with the template, the theme indicating a primary decision criterion of the presentation target.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the query condition is a predefined threshold.
5. An apparatus comprising:
one or more computer memories collectively containing a data structure for a slide presentation, the data structure comprising
a presentation definition template comprising a plurality of component definitions, wherein
one or more of the component definitions has an associated information bookmark,
an association of a query condition with each component definition, each query condition determining whether the associated component definition is to be included in a slide presentation; and
a mapping of each bookmark to an associated opportunity-specific data; and
a processor, coupled to the computer memories, configured to utilize the presentation definition template to execute a method, the method comprising
generating a slide presentation for a presentation target by determining whether to include each of the plurality of component definitions in the slide presentation based on its associated query condition, and
for each of the component definitions determined to be included in the slide presentation, automatically replacing the associated information bookmark with its mapped opportunity-specific data, wherein said determining uses the opportunity-specific data, and said determining and said replacing are performed without human interaction, and
storing the generated slide presentation.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the item of data is an opportunity-specific data.
7. A system for generating a slide presentation for a presentation target, comprising:
a means for creating at least one presentation definition template comprising component definitions, wherein one or more of the component definitions has an associated information bookmark;
a means for associating a query condition with each component definition, each query condition determining whether the associated component definition is to be included in the slide presentation;
a means for providing a mapping between each information bookmark and an associated item of data;
a processor comprising:
means for determining whether to include each of the plurality of component definitions in the slide presentation based on its associated query condition in response to a command to generate a slide presentation for a presentation targets;
means for, for each of the component definitions determined to be included in the slide presentation, automatically replacing the associated information bookmark with its mapped item of data in response to the command to generate the slide presentation for the presentation target, wherein the processor means for determining uses opportunity-specific data; and
means for storing the generated slide presentation.
8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the presentation target is a potential customer of a sales organization, and wherein the data relates to potential sales opportunities between the sales organization and the potential customer.
9. The system of claim 7 further comprising a means for associating a theme with the template, the theme indicating a primary decision criterion of the presentation target.
10. The system of claim 7 , wherein the item of data is an opportunity-specific data.
11. The system of claim 7 , wherein the query condition is a predefined threshold.