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Industry experts Doug Morrison and Dharashni Naidoo can provide insights into:
- How partnerships are creating stability and enabling growth for SMEs in a tough economy
- Practical strategies SMEs are using to access technology and finance without losing autonomy
- Lessons from local and international examples of co-delivery and collaboration
Stuck between slowdown and survival? Partnerships built better growth
Braintree believes partnerships are essential to creating ecosystems that benefit everyone.
South Africa’s small and medium enterprise (SME) business is closing off the last half of 2025 with a paradox. On one hand, they’re expected to be the country’s job creation and economic engine, on the other they operate in thin margins with high borrowing costs, uneven demand and borderline ridiculous red tape. The IFC-World Bank MSME Finance Gap 2025 study puts the global emerging market credit shortfall at $5.7 trillion, with 40% of formal MSMEs credit-constrained. And South African firms are squarely in this cohort.
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The OECD Economic Outlook forecasts subdued growth in South Africa without deeper structural reforms across key touchpoints such as regulatory simplification, improved infrastructure and investment efficiency. It’s a sentiment reflected in the Small Growth Business Index released in June 2025, showing a business ecosystem under immense pressure thanks to costs and complexity. The Index believes that almost half of these SMEs are at risk of closing down.
Waiting for macroeconomic reform isn’t a strategy
However, waiting for macroeconomic reform isn’t a strategy. What Braintree has done instead is build a growth engine that supports both its own growth, and that of other companies.
“We started our Business Partner programme over three years ago to diversify risk and build a sustainable sales channel,” says Doug Morrison, VP of Modern Workplace at Braintree. “What began as a sales strategy has become a platform for SME empowerment as we’ve now provided other consultancies with a home where they can grow within the Microsoft ecosystem while still maintaining their independence.”
Braintree’s agent channel supports independent partners in their sales of Microsoft solutions under a shared commercial umbrella. It’s a smart strategy – Braintree owns the billing and vendor management, so smaller firms are no longer stuck in the cogs of complex admin, debtor control and compliance work. In return, Braintree’s partners bring relationships, agility and niche expertise, which are invaluable. This reciprocal model turns administrative friction into collective efficiency.
Benefiting from the partnership programme
Currently, Braintree works with around 30 active business partners. Some are established consultancies with mature client bases, while others are in the incubation phase. Regardless of size and expertise, they all benefit from the partnership programme. Braintree provides mentorship and shared delivery frameworks alongside ongoing technical shadowing so partners can build capacity on live projects before taking ownership. The goal is to take customer engagements and implementations beyond transactional subcontracting towards co-delivery and measurable results.
Another benefit of the Business Partner programme is how it helps companies move away from the limitations of short-termism. Braintree’s approach is anchored in integrity. “We don’t engage with opportunistic intermediaries or tender-driven middlemen,” Dharashni Naidoo, Partner Manager at Braintree, says. “Our partnerships have aligned, shared ethics and we believe success is mutual.”
Every new partner is screened for commercial viability and for values alignment. The programme’s growth plan focuses on long-term relationships, mutual profitability and consistent delivery standards. And this insistence on ethics has created a network built on trust.
Partnership and how resilient ecosystems start small and scale
Throughout the programme, Braintree has evolved in how it builds on and supports partners. The practical playbook of learnings from the model can be easily applied across the SME sector, showing how resilient ecosystems start small but, with systematic thinkin,g can become immensely successful.
Some of the most impactful learnings are:
- Form a compact of equals. Draft a short collaboration memorandum that defines scope, regional reach and shared values.
- Centralise the friction. Nominate one company to own billing, compliance and vendor management, creating a single monthly statement for all network activity.
- Incubate skills. Run co-delivery sprints where senior engineers lead the first implementations while partners shadow, then take the lead under supervision.
- Balance branding. Allow co-branding for credibility while letting partners keep their own customer-facing identity.
- Measure the ecosystem. Track performance by outcomes because factors such as time-to-invoice, churn reduction, and co-sell win rates are better indicators of resilience than headline revenue.
As Microsoft continues to refine and change its global partner structure, many smaller resellers run the risk of losing direct access to transactional channels. The Braintree model provides a solution, giving smaller companies with niche expertise and unique talents the ability to grow and expand, both locally and abroad. Certainly, for Braintree, international expansion is definitely on the cards.
“Our model’s strategic plan is to start in the UK and Western Europe, creating a bridge for SMEs that want to remain active within the Microsoft environment while maintaining autonomy,” says Morrison. “Our programme is structured around our beliefs and goals, and so we are passing on the same principles that helped us grow with an approach that treats everyone equally.”
