LANHAM, Md. and NEW YORK, Feb. 23 -- Group 1 Software, Inc., a Pitney Bowes Company, and DataSynapse, Inc., a global provider of virtual application infrastructure software, today announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement that will enable the migration of Group 1's document creation technology, DOC1, from legacy mainframe systems to advanced grid-computing environments based on Linux servers. With the migration, Group 1 customers are expected to realize benefits such as improved processing speeds, accelerated development cycles, reduced costs and greater scalability. "Group 1's Customer Communication Management [CCM] solutions, such as DOC1, are strategic applications that help enable organizations make better decisions, enhance customer loyalty and increase productivity," noted James Starnes, senior vice president, global alliances of Group 1 Software. "Our agreement with DataSynapse is designed to provide our customers with a more secure, more scalable and higher-performance forward-migration path, based on advanced grid computing, for mainframe-based business-critical applications." Under the terms of the embedded software agreement, Group 1 and DataSynapse have developed an interface layer between DOC1 and DataSynapse's virtual application infrastructure software, GridServer. This layer is designed to enable DOC1 to run on high performance and cost-effective Linux server platforms. The agreement also calls for the two companies to cooperate in marketing, sales and technical support activities. "GridServer virtualizes process-intensive applications like DOC1 to run across a virtual pool of shared computing resources," said Rick Moran, senior vice president, business development at DataSynapse. "Our work with Group 1 makes it possible to offload DOC1 execution from expensive mainframe cycles to Linux servers -- simultaneously reducing operating costs, while markedly improving scalability." DOC1 Series 5 is a cornerstone of Group 1's CCM solution, which helps simplify the gathering and manipulation of data, streamlines document creation and distribution, and helps ensure information is accessible and secure. It is designed to achieve additional return on investment from existing legacy systems, taking multiple data sources, processing those inflows into a consistent format, and then applying that data to billing, marketing communications, analysis or management information applications. DataSynapse is a member of Group 1's G-Force(TM) Alliance Program, a comprehensive program designed for Group 1 channel partners. The G-Force Alliance helps bring to market Customer Communication Management solutions that help end-users create stronger, more profitable customer relationships.