Creating Automated Business Presentations

• Updated: May 2022

Business reviews ensure alignment and create a shared perspective with customers as to their outcomes and goals. Creating a business review can be a time consuming activity since you often have to gather data from different sources and review formats can vary widely between end-users, customers and products. The ability to automate this process increases efficiency and CSM productivity, decreasing the time to value to facilitate long-lasting customer relationships. 

 

Solution: 

Totango is proud to introduce a Solution that allows our customers to create reviews that:

• Are populated with selected KPIs and metrics for each account 
• Can be created with your own PowerPoint slide template or one provided by Totango. (Additional formats (e.g. Google Slides to be added later).
• Are stored in the Account’s Assets section

We will cover the following topics in this article:

• Creating your Business Review Template
• Uploading your Business Review Template
• Generating your Business Review Template
• Creating your Business Review Template: see also: https://www.google.com/url?q=https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/design-your-slides-53c20bd5-e594-4837-a7ad-525706e09960%23POWERPOINT-DESIGN%3DTemplates&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1650992121305066&usg=AOvVaw0N4MoIAxzN9KH018PgC3R_  

1.1 Select the MS PowerPoint Template you wish to use for your report.

(Note: We offer a Business Review template located within the 'Manage Business Review' SuccessBLOC)

1.1.1 If you do not have a PowerPoint Template you may use the Totango branded or a blank template Provided by Totango by clicking here (link). Note: currently PowerPoint is the only format supported Google Slides will be added in the near future.

 

 

 

1.1.2 Open your template and insert the number of slides desired.  Tip: you can simply right-click on any slide in the left navigation pane to add additional slides to any template.

 

 

1.1.3 Once you have the desired number of slides, you can insert any background, graphic or static text you wish. See example below containing static text.  

Sample of Static Text

 

1.2  Next, you are ready to insert your automated data tags. Select Report Generator from the Green + menu. Sample of Static Text (left column in Light Green) with Data Tags (right column in Dark Green)

1.2  Next, you are ready to insert your automated data tags. Select Report Generator from the Green + menu.

 

1.3 Select Find My Data Tags:

1.4 Upon completing the step above a window will appear. You may choose the type of data tag that you’re looking for (Text Chart or Table),  for download. Once you select the type of Data Tag you want, the window will lead you to the specific Attribute or Chart you’d like to produce.    

For example: If you choose a chart, the tool will allow you to choose the time period and the actual attribute measured.

Helpful hint - For easier access you can choose the Dimensions button to only pull attributes that have been grouped together around the same function (e.g. Account Roles, Hierarchy, etc…)

 

Once you finish with your search parameters, the system will generate a data tag at the bottom of the window. All you need is to copy that tag (right click or use the Paste to Clipboard icon. You can then use that icon anywhere in your template.

 

Alternative Process: If you choose, you can pull all your data tags in one CSV output, by checking the Download Data Tags option in the original Generate Presentation Screen:  

See Sample Output Below

 

1.5 Regardless of whether you use the Data Tag Generator or the CSV list,Select and copy the Data Tag you want to report from the Totango Data Tag column. The Data Tag can be recognized by double brackets {{....}}. Reminder: Be sure to keep the Data Tag Provided intact and without revision.

 

1.6 Place your copied Data Tag in the desired location in your template. See Examples below:

 

Example

 

NOTE: SKIP to SECTION 1.7 if using our Data Tag Generator...

 

1.6.1 Data Tags:  Generally there are four types of Data Tags you can place into your template: Text, Chart, Table or Collection. We cover each one below:

 

Text: This tag allows you to present any attribute/metric value in PowerPoint text 

For attribute:  {{type=text&attribute=[attributeId]}}  

(for example for “account_name”): 

{{type=text&attribute=account_name}}

 

For metric:   {{type=text&metric=[metricId]}}  

(for example for “metric_1”):  

{{type=text&metric=metric_1}}

 

Chart: This tag will generate a PowerPoint chart (This can easily be changed using your PowerPoint desktop application) The line chart placeholder place in the Chart Title and be in the follow structure:

{{type=line-chart&data=[attribute/metric:attributeId/metricId_1,attribute/metric:attributeId/metricId_2,...]&period=[periodInDays]}}

For example if you want to generate graph for attribute: Contract Value and metric: metric_1 in the last 180 days you can use the follow placeholder:

{{type=line-chart data=attribute:Contract Value,metric:metric_1&period=180}}

**Note that your time period can be anywhere from one day up to 360 days.

 

Table: This data tag creates a table (currently only for Objectives).

To add this to your Template, simply insert 3 line table in the format below:

• • The first row Title row of the table - 
  • The second row is the row that represent the objective item field 
  • The third row is only to “mark” it as Totango objective table

We recommend the following format:

The placeholder in the third line always be in the follow format: 

{{type=table&entity=objective}}.

Simply replace the text within the {{  }}) in the second line above with the desired data tag name. See your options below. 

Note that any text or images in your template will carry through to your final review. Only Data Tags will be dynamically replaced by Totango Information. The data objectives available are:

 

• "id":,
• "service_id":,
• "account_id":,
• "title":,
• "description":,
• "created_by":,
• "updated_by":,
• "created_at":,
• "updated_at":,
• "activity_type_id":,
• "objective_template_id":,

 

There’s no need to add additional rows, the following row will duplicate for every successive objective item in the account. However, extremely long entries can surpass the page’s character limitations.

Note: Feel free to format your Data Tag according to your requirements. The format you choose for the data tag will be the format your data appears in. For example, if you want your text data to appear in 14pt Bold Arial, simply set those as the fonts for the data tag.

 

Collection: Collections Slides are a little more advanced and may not be needed for all Presentations. But these slides are formatted in a very similar manner to the Table Above.

We recommend Collection tables be formatted in the following manner:

 

In order to change your collections data you simply need to replace the Collection ID (highlighted above in yellow) with the ID from your desired Collection.

 

1.7 Loading your Template to the Totango App: 

 

1.7.1 Be sure you save your finished template with data tags under a separate file name.

 

1.7.2 Then add it to the Assets for the desired account. See Steps Below:

 

Step 1. Once in the Desired Account, Select the “Generate” Icon.

Step 2. Select Upload Template.

Step 3. Select your template from your desired location. Click Open.

Step 4.  Click Upload File.

Step 5. Click Done.

Step 6. Move to the Select Template Tab and you will not see your uploaded template available and ready for use.

Note that any text or images in your template will carry through to your final document. Only Data Tags will be dynamically replaced by Totango Information.

Now you're ready to Generate your Presentation…

Generating your Presentation

2.1 Select the account you wish to create the review for.

2.2 Once in the Account, Select the “Generate” Icon.

 

2.3 Choose your template from the Select Template tab, 

2.4 Give your Presentation a name 

2.5 Click Generate.

2.6 Check Your Assets Tab to Find Your New Report or simply open it from the  prompt below:

 

 

2.7 Once opened, your new presentation can be opened and edited as needed within MS PowerPoint. Text and formats can be edited in either Office 365 or your desktop instance of PowerPoint. However, for some editing functions (like changing chart formats or accessing underlying data) MS PowerPoint Desktop may be required.