One claimed Microsoft's goal is to cut  North American partners from 3,600 to about 600 over three years. Another speculates margins would go up for large VARs but nearly vanish for small fry. Coupled with tougher requirements, the program would push them out of the market or into different roles "If you read between the lines. What’s going to happen is all the smaller folks will be forced to plug into an aggregator partner, somebody that’s got margin and resources," he said. Another didn't think that dire reduction was in the offing, but agreed "Microsoft is encouraging mergers and acquisitions." Aggregation hasn't necessary worked that well, but new hopefuls are emerging. Dynamics Ventures hopes to put together VARs and related companies. Another VAR said he was looking for financing for a project that might resemble a franchise, which would be good for small VARs because it would let them offload a lot of operations to an entity with resources. The relationship between VARs and vendors greatly resembles franchising. But having covered the extinct computer store channel, companies like MicroAge and ComputerLand, my opinion is franchising lends itself to mass produced products and services, not those with a lot of value-add.