Methods and apparatus for automatically generating presentations

• US 20070055939A1
• Filed: 11/30/2000
• Published: 03/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Oracle America, Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Siebel Systems Inc. (Oracle Corporation)
• Inventors: Furlong, Tarri, Lee, Wan
• Granted Patent: US 7,246,316 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/731
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

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.

Claims

1-8. -8. (canceled)

9. 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; 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 to generate the slide presentation, wherein

said determining uses the opportunity-specific data, and

said determining and said replacing are performed without human interaction.

10. The method of claim 9, 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.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising associating a theme with the template, the theme indicating a primary decision criterion of the presentation target.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the query condition is a predefined threshold.

12. (canceled)

14. One or more computer memories collectively containing a data structure for a slide presentation, 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 information bookmark to an associated opportunity-specific data,

such that the presentation definition template may be used by a processor coupled to the computer memories to generate 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.

16. The computer memories of claim 14, wherein the item of data is an opportunity-specific data.

15. (canceled)

17. 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 target, and

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.

18. The system of claim 17, 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.

19. The system of claim 17 further comprising a means for associating a theme with the template, the theme indicating a primary decision criterion of the presentation target.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the item of data is an opportunity-specific data.

22. The system of claim 17, wherein the query condition is a predefined threshold.

21. (canceled)