Easypose uses ERC, which relies on the internal geometry and still would require you to group the figure. The body handles system is essentially an extra bone/magnet that is used to move the objects vertices. I can't for the life of me remember where I first saw it, but check her website (3dmenagerie) for a mini-tute on it -- some of them made it into the book, other's didn't. I've always worked under the assumption that you cannot asign more than one bone to a group, so I wouldn't know how you could make an object posable and still retain a single object. You can bone it, which is one thing, but making it move is another -- that would require joints, which I thought required two or more bones to enable.

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)