Red Funnel Releases FatStax 2.0 for iPad

Red Funnel Consulting has launched the FatStax 2.0 application for the iPad, allowing sales and product managers to pull up PDFs, videos, PowerPoint presentations, and documents for prospects through the FatStax Web platform right from their tablet device.

"One thing we heard, over and over again, is, 'We love the ability to search through products, but we've got all of these really cool videos and PowerPoints and PDFs that marketing has built, and we want that right here in the application," explains Rusty Bishop, cofounder of Red Funnel Consulting, of the impetus behind the 2.0 upgrade.

Bishop and Red Funnel cofounder Mark Walker originally set out to develop a sales app for BlackBerry. Their plans shifted when "iPad came out and we thought, 'this is the sales tool of the future,'" he says. "We went out on the road with sales reps and watched how they used their product catalogs…and we learned that it was all going to be about the ability to search through giant product catalogs offline and to show that information to a customer."

The original version of FatStax for iPad, launched in 2010, capitalized on the inherent need for search capabilities by reps in pharmaceuticals and life sciences, early adopters. But increasingly Red Funnel identified the need to incorporate digital components like video and other marketing collateral into users' sales presentations while on the road.

"We are really focused on giving that salesperson the ability, [regardless of whether] they have 50,000 products or 500 products, to type three letters on an iPad and [to be able to instantly] show that customer what they need to know to make a purchase," Bishop adds. In terms of its user base, the company has seen upward growth in supply-type companies like manufacturing and distribution.

In a recent user survey, the company found that 42 percent of salespeople polled reported closing a sale within two days of sending an email with product information from FatStax, Bishop says.

FatStax currently comes packaged for SMBs (it can accommodate 10 to 100 iPads) or for enterprise (more than 100 iPads). Prices start at $25 per month, per user. Bishop says a universal app to lead functionality will allow a user in FatStax to automatically synch their actions in-app to major CRM systems like Salesforce.com and Microsoft Dynamics, as well as marketing automation platforms like Act-On or Marketo.

FatStax was recently named the "Most Liked" app at the 2011 CTIA Disruptathon Mobile Enterprise Event. According to a Gartner Research forecast, enterprise sales of media tablets like the iPad will account for 35 percent of total tablets sold in 2015. Apple iOS is estimated to account for 61.4 percent of worldwide media tablet sales to end users in 2012.