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  • SOLUTION 07. AI JUMPSTART

AI for business. Built to ship. Built to audit.

We build your AI on Microsoft Azure. The governance, the security and the ROI case signed off before anything goes live.
SA clients
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Microsoft
-certified
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Microsoft
Managed
Partners
0 in SA
Bioforum
AI deploy
0 Months
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  • The wedge no global Microsoft partner can claim.

Your AI and its data stay in South Africa.

Microsoft Azure runs from datacentres in Joburg North and Cape Town. Your models, your prompts and the data they learn from run there too. POPIA enforcement turned proactive in 2026, with the first direct-marketing fine landing R100,000. Public AI clouds route your data through US, EU or APAC instances.
R10 million statutory maximum
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  • The Microsoft AI stack

The Microsoft AI stack you'll run. Five products. One governed environment.

Copilot Studio

Build, publish and govern custom agents. Low-code, grounded on your data, inside your Microsoft tenant.

Azure OpenAI

Frontier models run inside your Azure tenant. Your prompts and your data stay yours.

Microsoft 365 Copilot

AI inside Outlook, Teams, Word and Excel. The tools your people already use every day.

Azure AI Search

Grounds every agent in your own documents and data. Answers with citations, not guesses.

Azure AI Foundry

The platform Braintree builds on. Content safety, evaluations and a logged audit trail on every agent.

  • Where agents earn their place.

I agents across the business. Deployed where they earn their case.

AI is not one product. Agents show up across operations, service, sales, finance and knowledge work. Braintree deploys the ones with a proven business case through the AI Value Framework, and builds custom agents on Azure AI Foundry where Microsoft does not yet ship a named one.
Area 01

Operations

Process agents

Handle routine, repeatable tasks across your systems. People keep the judgement work. The agent takes the repetition.

Document agents

Read, extract and route information from incoming documents and forms. The data lands where it belongs without manual capture.

Area 02

Customer service

Service agents

Draft case responses grounded in your knowledge base. The agent answers. The human approves and sends.

Voice assist

Sits beside the human on the call. Surfaces answers from your knowledge base in real time. No hold music.

Area 03

Sales and marketing

Sales Development Agent

Microsoft ran this agent on its own pipeline. 61,734 outreaches, 15.1% lead-to-opportunity, January to November 2025. Microsoft-published benchmark.

Research agents

Brief the seller on the account, the news and the stakeholders before the meeting. The seller walks in prepared.

Area 04

Finance and reporting

Reporting agents

Compile and narrate management reports from your own data. The numbers and the commentary, drafted for review.

Reconciliation agents

Match records across systems and flag the exceptions. A human clears the short list, not the whole ledger.

Area 05

Knowledge and compliance

Knowledge agents

Answer staff questions from your policy and process documents, with citations back to the source.

Audit trail

Every agent action logged and reviewable. The record that lets the environment survive an audit. POPIA-aligned.

Custom domain agents

Built by Braintree on Azure AI Foundry

For the use cases Microsoft does not yet ship a named agent. Built on Azure AI Foundry, Copilot Studio and Power Automate. SA-grounded. Production. POPIA-aligned. Custom agents enter through the AI Value Framework. Same business case discipline as the named agents above.
  • How we deploy

How we deploy. The AI Value Framework.

Four stages. Business case first. ROI modelled. Deployed only where the case proves out.

Discover

Map the operations and workflows across your business with the highest agent-ROI potential.

Evaluate

Go / No-go gate Full ROI and TCO model. Presented to management. Sign-off before any deployment.

Deploy

Microsoft and Azure AI agents, deployed only where the business case warrants them.

Build

Custom domain agents on Azure AI Foundry where Microsoft does not yet ship a named one.

Braintree doesn’t deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.

  • Two ways to start.

The fork is what you build, not whether it is governed.

AI is not one product. Agents show up across operations, service, sales, finance and knowledge work. Braintree deploys the ones with a proven business case through the AI Value Framework, and builds custom agents on Azure AI Foundry where Microsoft does not yet ship a named one.
Best when an off-the-shelf Microsoft agent already fits the job.

Deploy a named agent

  • Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio agents, configured to your data and your tenant.
  • Live once the business case clears the Evaluate gate.
  • 100+ Microsoft-certified specialists configure, ground and govern it.
  • Timeline: weeks, not months.
Best when the job is specific to your business and Microsoft does not ship a named agent.

Build a custom agent

  • Built on Azure AI Foundry, grounded on your own data and your own rules.
  • Content safety, evaluations and a logged audit trail from day one.
  • Braintree owns the build, the testing and the handover.
  • Timeline: scoped per use case, typically 4 to 12 weeks.
  • One agreement. The commercial case.

One Microsoft Partner. One Intelligent Agreement. One Unified, Secure Solution.

Most AI starts as scattered pilots. A chatbot here, a point AI tool there, each with its own contract, its own data path and its own security review. Braintree puts your AI inside one Microsoft agreement, on Azure, governed once. One agreement, one security posture, one accountable partner.
Separate tools, separate contracts, separate data paths.

Before. Scattered AI pilots.

  • A standalone AI tool, signed off on its own
  • A separate vendor contract and renewal cycle for each tool
  • Each tool with its own data path and security review
  • No single accountability when an agent gets something wrong
  • POPIA cross-border transfer paperwork on every offshore tool
One Braintree agreement. One posture. One roadmap.

After. One Intelligent Agreement.

  • One Microsoft Customer Agreement covering your AI
  • One security and governance posture across every agent
  • One accountability for the agents and the data they use
  • Braintree-managed across build and run-state
  • POPIA-aligned by default. Data on SA Azure regions
0 .1%

lead-to-opportunity rate Microsoft Sales Development Agent. 61,734 outreaches. January to November 2025.

2 MONTHS

Bioforum. A secure AI framework on Azure, live in two months. MSA biometric clinical research organisation. FDA-regulated, 200 employees.

FDA

Reviewed by the FDA as an industry benchmark. The Bioforum AI environment, built by Braintree on Microsoft Azure.

  • vs the alternative

A generic AI project, AI Jumpstart, and the practical winner.

Dimension
Generic AI project
AI Jumpstart with Braintree
Practical winner
Governance and audit
Bolted on later, if at all
Content safety, evaluations and an audit trail from day one
Braintree
WedgeData residency for SA
Public AI clouds, US / EU / APAC
Azure South Africa, Joburg and Cape Town. POPIA-aligned.
Braintree
ROI discipline
Build first, justify later
ROI and TCO modelled before any deployment
Braintree
Time to first value
Stalls in pilot
Live in weeks once the case clears the gate
Braintree
Upfront cost to start
Low. A public tool and a credit card
A scoped engagement with a specialist team
Generic AI project
Who owns it in production
Whoever built it, until they move on
Braintree, with 100+ Microsoft-certified specialists
Braintree
5 to 1 in Braintree’s favour. A do-it-yourself pilot is cheaper to start. It is also where most AI stalls. Honest.
  • Talk to us

Talk to the team that built Bioforum's AI environment.

Three specialists lead the AI Jumpstart practice. You talk to one of them, not an account manager, not a gate. Plus the 8-minute AI readiness check.
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Available

Chris Badenhorst

VP Azure and AI

Azure AI
Copilot
AI strategy · Governance · ROI
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Available

[Specialist 2, to confirm]

Senior AI Architect

Azure
Azure OpenAI
Architecture · Tokenisation · Security
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Available

[Specialist 3, to confirm]

AI Adoption Lead

Power Platform
Microsoft 365
Change · Adoption · Training
  • Free, 8 minutes

How AI-ready is your business against the SA enterprise median?

8 questions. We map your AI readiness against benchmarks from 220+ SA clients. You get a tier. Above median, At median, Below median fixable in 90 days, Below median fixable in 12 months. Plus the actions to close the gap.
  • Book the scoping call.

From scoping call to AI in production in three steps.

01

Share your environment

Tell us what you run today. Your data, your systems, the workflows you would point an agent at, your security and compliance constraints. Five to ten minutes on your side.

02

5-day scoped response (SLA)

Braintree returns a scoped AI opportunity map, the agent candidates and the AI Value Framework ROI view. Inside five business days.

03

30-minute findings call

Review the opportunity map with the architect. Shortlist the agents. Choose the fork, named or custom. Discuss the South African data residency answer. No sales pitch.
  • Common questions, honestly answered.

What leaders ask before they book.

Eight questions we answer in every scoping call. Pre-empted here so you can scan first.
Where does our data live if Braintree builds our AI?
On Microsoft Azure South Africa North in Johannesburg, with three Availability Zones, or Microsoft Azure South Africa West in Cape Town. Your models, your prompts and the data they are grounded on run there. POPIA-aligned by default. The Information Regulator’s 2026/27 priorities shifted from reactive complaints to proactive industry sweeps. The first direct-marketing fine of R100,000 was issued to FT Rams Consulting. The maximum penalty is R10 million or 10 years. A public AI cloud routes your data offshore. Braintree keeps it in South Africa.
Every agent Braintree builds carries content safety filters, a documented evaluation set and a logged trail of what it did and why. If a regulator, an auditor or your own board asks how the AI reached a decision, the record exists. Bioforum’s AI environment, built by Braintree on Azure, is being reviewed by the FDA as an industry benchmark. Governance is built in from day one, not bolted on after an incident.
Most pilots stall because they start with the tool, not the business case. The AI Value Framework runs the other way. Stage 01 Discover maps where an agent would actually earn its keep. Stage 02 Evaluate models the ROI and TCO and puts a go or no-go gate in front of management. Nothing deploys until the case is signed off. The pilots that stall are the ones nobody costed. Braintree does not deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.
It depends on the job. Where Microsoft already ships a named agent that fits, you deploy it: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Copilot Studio agents, configured to your tenant. Where the job is specific to your business and Microsoft does not ship a named agent, Braintree builds a custom one on Azure AI Foundry, grounded on your own data and rules. Most businesses run both. The scoping call sorts which is which.
A named Microsoft agent, configured and governed, is usually live in weeks once the business case clears the Evaluate gate. A custom agent on Azure AI Foundry is scoped per use case, typically 4 to 12 weeks. Cost depends on the agents in scope and your Azure consumption. The 5-day scoped response after your call gives you the opportunity map and the ROI view before you commit to anything. Bioforum’s full secure AI framework was delivered in two months.
No. Azure OpenAI runs the models inside your own Azure tenant. Your prompts and your data are not used to train the underlying models and are not shared with other customers. Custom agents on Azure AI Foundry are grounded on your data through retrieval, not by retraining a model on it. Your information stays your information. That is the difference between enterprise AI on Azure and a consumer AI tool.
Braintree. The agents and the data they use sit under one Microsoft Customer Agreement, with one accountable partner. 100+ Microsoft-certified specialists own the run-state: monitoring, evaluations, updates and the audit trail. A do-it-yourself pilot is owned by whoever built it, until they move on. AI in production needs an owner who is still there in a year.
Three answers. Credentials. Braintree is one of three Microsoft Managed Partners in South Africa, with 220+ SA clients, 100+ Microsoft-certified professionals and 10+ years delivering Microsoft solutions. Data residency. The only honest answer to “your AI and its data stay in South Africa” comes from a partner with SA Azure operations. Method. The AI Value Framework gates every agent against ROI, every time. Most partners sell the AI catalogue. Braintree sells the case for each agent. We do not deploy AI agents by default. We deploy them where the ROI is proven.
  • From the Braintree practice.

Insights for leaders evaluating enterprise AI.

Strategy

Built to ship, built to audit. Why AI governance is not optional in 2026.

Tell us what you run today. Your data, your systems, the workflows you would point an agent at, your security and compliance constraints. Five to ten minutes on your side.

  • Article in production

Adoption

Where AI agents actually earn their keep. Five business areas.

Operations, customer service, sales, finance, knowledge work. The honest map of where an agent pays for itself, and where a human still does the job better.
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Methodology

The AI Value Framework. Why we model ROI before we deploy an agent.

Discover, Evaluate, Deploy, Build. The four-stage gate that keeps AI projects from stalling in pilot. The business case first, the agent second.
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  • Where this connects.

AI Jumpstart sits inside a stack.

One Braintree agreement. One team. Full Microsoft coverage.

Devices & Hardware

An agent is only as good as the data under it. Microsoft Fabric and Power BI give your AI a single, governed source of truth to reason over.

Explore →

Modern Workplace

Microsoft 365 Copilot is AI inside the tools your people already use. Modern Workplace is the licensing and adoption layer that makes Copilot land and stick.

Explore →

Modernise ERP. Enterprise

An agent is only as useful as the systems it reaches into. A modern Dynamics 365 core gives your AI clean processes and data to act on.

Explore →
  • AI for business. Built to ship. Built to audit.

Get AI shipping outcomes, not running experiments.

30-minute scoping call. We map where AI pays back in your business, model the ROI, and tell you what to build first. No pitch deck.