Altara, based in Sacramento, Calif., is in its second life as Dynamics reseller with the original New Jersey based operation of that name having sold of its Dynamics practice a few  years ago. The Altara press release describes Katalys as "an international partnership of Microsoft "Dynamics resellers".  The Katalys Group Partners website notes that its charter members received a share in the group. With members in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, it had plans to expand. However, Microsoft wants to eliminate organizations that it says exist simply to provide better margins to participants. Instead, it has rolled out the Master VAR plan via which smaller resellers can affiliate under approved Master VARs, of which there are currently three in the United States. With the handwriting on the wall, Katalys tried to get into the program but was not approved and was scheduled to be audited by Microsoft last fall to ascertain if it followed partner program rules.