"We find that more companies are coming to us to tighten up their financial systems because of the economic crisis," vice president Phil Hollins said.

He was speaking at a media briefing on the renaming of the CODA group office in Singapore to BaanCOS. Dutch company Baan acquired the British financial software supplier CODA in May.

Hollins said to date, BaanCOS sales in the region, covering Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, are up "50-60 per cent" over the same period last year.

He did not give a specific period as the company changing its financial reporting period due to the acquisition.

BaanCOS had won Singapore $2 million worth of software deals in first six months of the year, Hollins said, but declined to give total sales for the region for the period.

He saidbesides looking for faster and more "real-time" information on their financial systems, companies are also looking for solutions for year 2000 compliance (Y2K).

He said the companys more than 100 customers in the region were looking for solutions to help their achieve Y2K in the shortest possible time.

Hollins said BaanCOS solutions take about four to six months to implement while competitors solutions often take at least six months to a year.

He said BaanCOS aims to increase its staff strength in Asia to about 40 from the current 26 by the end of this year.

The increase in the staff strength was also due to CODA offering a wider range of products since its acquisition by Baan, he said.

Hollins said the Asian economic crisis has put some pressure on prices and margins but bad debts was not a major issue so far.

He said the company will focus its energy on developing markets in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and also India for the future.

Hollins said Baan already has a network of officesin these markets and that would allow BaanCOS to expand in these markets at a faster rate.