Onit’s President to Judge the 13th Annual Rice University Business Plan Competition

HOUSTON, TX — (MARKETWIRE) — 04/12/13 — Onit, a leading provider of business productivity and process management Apps, today announced that its President Eric M. Elfman will once more serve as a judge for the Rice University Business Plan Competition. This will be the 12th year that he has served in this capacity for the competition, which is the world’s richest and largest graduate-level business plan competition.

Hosted and organized by the Rice Alliance for Technology and Entrepreneurship and the Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, the competition has grown from nine teams competing for $10,000 in prize money in 2001 to 42 teams from around the world vying for more than $1.3 million in cash and prizes.

In the start-up world, entrepreneurs often have to solicit the resources to finance their businesses. The competition mirrors this process by inviting the entrepreneurs to “pitch” their business plans and vision to the judges. The judges then grade each presentation as if they were venture capital investors themselves. The winner of the competition is the business that the judges would most likely invest in based on the quality of the idea, the strength of the management team and the clarity and persuasiveness of the written plan and oral presentation.

“Competitions such as these are invaluable sources of experience and growth for up-and-coming businesses,” said Elfman. “As a serial entrepreneur myself, I understand the business focus and vision necessary to grow a successful venture.”

The judges, usually members of the investment community or involved in early-stage investment decisions on a consistent basis, review and rank business plans through three rounds throughout the three-day competition. Winners are designated based on the judges’ willingness to invest in a business based on an evaluation of the written business plan and a verbal presentation.

To learn more about the competition and its rigorous judging duties, visit http://www.alliance.rice.edu/rbpc.aspx.

About Onit

Onit was formed by legal software industry experts Eric M. Elfman and Eric A. Smith, co-founders of Datacert, a leading provider of enterprise spend management software. Launched in early 2010, Onit deploys Onit Apps to simplify business process automation and improve business productivity across all departments and industries. The Onit App Builder allows business users to drive efficiency and productivity by combining business process management, project management, and information management into one easy to use tool so the user can create their own Onit Apps without having to rely on IT for support.

Businesses have processes for everything — whether it’s hiring a vendor or law firm, terminating an employee, submitting a contract for review, requesting a trademark request, obtaining an NDA, etc. Most of these processes are manual, paper intensive and cumbersome. With Onit Apps, processes are automated in a few clicks, responsible parties are notified immediately, and data collection is centralized. Onit doesn’t require any software to download or resources from IT. For more information, visit www.onit.com or contact 1-800-281-1330.