Awards are pleasant, but $80,000 may be more useful to the three companies who won the final phase of the Pittsburgh Technology Council's fourth-annual Enterprize Business Plan Competition. The prizes were to be handed out last night at Alumni Hall at the University of Pittsburgh.

In the new business category, an idea from Carnegie Mellon University will collect $30,000. Desantage Inc., led by chief technologist and CMU professor Jonathan Cagan, was cited for its plans to sell computer-aided design synthesis tools that cut product design time for industrial and consumer products. Contestants in the category submitted business plans but haven't yet created businesses.

Existing businesses had a chance at a $50,000 cash prize. That money will be split between a Wexford software company, ProductSoft Inc., and an O'Hara maker of plastic end walls, Hartman Products.

ProductSoft is building a computer application that will help software product managers stay on top of a product from market analysis through product development and then launch. The company was founded by Eric Boduch.

An entirely different type of technology has been driving Hartman Products, which sells end walls that can be used at the end of drainage pipes. Founder Bruce Hartman, a former PennDOT employee, invented the plastic devices to replace the concrete systems commonly used.

The tech council contest stretches over three phases with a total of $122,000 awarded. Both Hartman and ProductSoft picked up $12,000 each in the earlier two phases.

Tech council officials, who are trying to promote entrepreneurship in the region, calculate participants in the contest have attracted nearly $25 million in venture funding since 1999. More than 90 teams participated this year.