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The insurance industry is notoriously cumbersome after a natural disaster. The trauma of rebuilding negotiations often compounds that of the original event. The good news is an award-winning ‘track-and-trace’ approach to claims handling hopes to reduce turnaround time by up to 60%.

According to the latest BizExchange Index of Private Company Values, the number of small businesses for sale has achieved a new record. Keeping up with the trend registered in the last quarters, the September quarter BizExchange Index shows that Australian business owners continue to try to sell their businesses while market sentiment remains negative.

Marketing agency April5 has secured a $20,000 Enterprise Connect innovation grant to develop and implement business strategies and plans which will increase productivity and growth.

The worth of the Asia Pacific digital games market will grow from $13 billion in 2011 to $30 billion in 2016, according to Ovum. Behind the growth is the rise of the casual gamer, who uses platforms such as tablets and smartphones to play digital games, and the free-to-play model.

Female business owners are embracing social media faster than their male counterparts, says American Express. On the other hand, male business owners are more willing to adopt new technologies and gadgets. “While male business owners focus on the importance of acquiring the tools with which to get connected, their female counterparts are more focused on putting these tools to work for them.”

The Cloud Booster Program has just been launched. The program, which was created by Ninefold, is designed to accelerate the growth of Australian start-ups. The cloud computing company also announced Pollenizer and Startmate as the program’s first partners, which were soon joined by Innovation Bay and AngelCube.

Australian IP’s Dream Shield has just been award the Social Responsibility Award from the Australian Marketing Institute for its social contribution and impact in the indigenous community.

Winged Media, a developer of technologies in digital media, domain assets and online publishing, has raised $3 million from the Carnegie Innovation Fund, which is supported by the Innovation Investment Fund (IIF) program, a federal Government initiative. The investment will be used to further its Protrada platform. An aggregator of the major domain auction houses, Protrada allows members to buy and sell domains, and provides data and analysing tools.

The Australian venture capital firm Starfish Ventures has invested $3 million in DesignCrowd, according to a media release dispatched on Thursday. The Australian start-up, a design crowdsourcing community with more than 40,000 registered graphic designers, plans to use the new investment to launch two new services in 2012 and to expand its client base outside Australia.

As a native English speaker, Matthew Ho was once frustrated by his attempts to learn Mandarin. This week, he's in Beijing showing off just how fun and addictive the language can be. Ho and his startup, Native Tongue, have been promoting Mandarin Madness, an educational gaming application, at TechCrunch Disrupt Beijing.

This year, the team behind Creative3 wants creative enterprise professionals to once again learn about creativity, enterprise and investments at Creative3 International Forum 2011. Media vanguards Tracey Robertson, Shainiel Deo, Pip Jamieson and Simon Goodrich are set to headline the event.

Holy multitasking. According to a new study by telecoms stat gurus Ovum, a cool 74 per cent of consumers with a broadband connection cruise the interwebs while watching the telly.

A new survey shows that 95% of businesses that use group buying websites to sell to sell products or services are happy with the results of their promotions which have brought them new customers and increased foot traffic.

The name of the seven recipients of the City of Melbourne’s 2011 Small Business Grants, Social Enterprise and Micro Business Grants Program have just been announced. The total of the grants amount to $55,000 which will allow Melbourne’s businesses to start up and expand.

Small is indeed beautiful when it comes to business structures. Economists who have for long trumpeted the virtues of being small should be able to pat themselves in the back one more time as small enterprises show great resilience, not to mention optimism, despite fears of a global economic crisis. A survey by American Express reveals that a majority of the nation’s small businesses are quickly adapting to the adverse economic conditions and a third expect to increase profits despite from a slowing, and fragile, global economy.

Australian consumers are changing their buying behaviour and are increasingly adopting multichannel as their favoured way of engaging with brands and products. The research indicates that multichannel shoppers will spend between three and six times more that store only shoppers.

Ovum's latest report puts the Australian and New Zealand business software market on the verge of a massive growth across all categories. The market is expected to hit $7.3 billion in 2015.

The Australian Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AWCCI) has launched the Women in Business Poll to gather the views of Australian business women. According to AWCCI CEO Yolanda Vega, the 700,000-odd lady-folk small business owners are long overdue some attention.

The Parramatta Eels are all over this daily deals malarkey like footie shorts that have just gone through a very hot wash. In an NRL first, the team will offer fans “unprecedented access” to discounted local business services and activities via the brand-spanking new EelsDeals, a dedicated daily deals platform. Accessible via Facebook, email, Twitter, the Eels iPhone App and word of mouth, each day will see a local business deal promoted to Parramatta club fans.

The deadline for The Australian’s innovation awards – presented by the daily in partnership with Shell and the Commonwealth Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and Research – has been extended, apparently on growing popular demand. The awards recognise innovation for the public good as well as breakthroughs that have potential for commercial use. The winners of each category will receive a cash prize of $5,000. The overall winner will receive an additional $25,000. The Backyard Innovation award open to the general public has a $10,000 prize.