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Set up Microsoft 365 and Business Central demo environments with MDX

Use Microsoft demo experience (MDX), formerly Customer Digital Experiences (CDX), to create repeatable demos that showcase Business Central with Microsoft apps and services in an independent Azure organization (tenant) that you fully control. MDX lets you create demo tenants and environments that you can use for demos and training without introducing changes to an existing production environment. Learn more at Offer your customers trials of Microsoft products.

Important

Environments that are created through MDX are intended for demo and training purposes. If a prospect uses this environment to run their business, they might lose company data when the demo environment or MDX tenant expires. If a prospect wants to use Business Central to help run their business, have them sign up for a trial using their own email account. Learn more at Dynamics 365 Business Central Trials and Subscriptions in the business functionality content for Business Central.

Prerequisites

Create a demo environment

  1. Sign in to aka.ms/cdx by using your partner account.

  2. Use the Search box to find the following demo experiences:

    • Dynamics 365 Business Central Demo
    • Dynamics 365 Business Central
    • Microsoft 365 Business Premium Demo

    Not sure which experience to choose? Experiences are available in both 90-day and 1-year versions. Learn more in Understand the differences between experiences.

  3. On the tile for the experience you want to use, select View experience to show information about the experience.

  4. Under Customer details, fill in the information as needed.

  5. Under Tenant details, select Claim new tenant.

  6. Set the Region as you like.

    This setting determines the Azure region where the tenant is deployed, not the Business Central country/region version. In most cases, choose the region that is closest to your location. You select the country/region version later when you sign up for the Business Central trial.

  7. Select Start demo to create the new tenant.

  8. When the tenant is created, a page appears with details of the tenant. Keep the page open because you need the administrator email and password in the next step.

  9. Start a Business Central trial in the new MDX tenant:

    1. In a dedicated browser window, open https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2255328.
    2. Follow the online instructions to fill in the information required to sign up for Business Central. For the email, use the new administrator account email that was set up for the tenant in the previous step.

    Tip

    We recommend that you use profiles in the Microsoft Edge browser rather than InPrivate or Incognito browser mode. Learn more at Microsoft Edge.

When sign-up is complete, you have a dedicated demonstration organization that includes multiple demo users with Microsoft 365 licenses and a Business Central environment.

Expected result: Verify that these two companies are available in the initial Business Central demo environment:

  • The CRONUS demonstration company
  • An empty company with the name My Company (the display name might differ for demo purposes)

Understand the differences between experiences

All three experiences support the same core Business Central scenarios and include Microsoft 365 apps, such as Office apps, Teams, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

The main differences are in the Power Platform configuration—specifically, Dynamics 365 apps availability and Dataverse and AI Builder default setup. The following table summarizes the key differences across tenants created from different experiences.

Category Dynamics 365 Business Central Demo Dynamics 365 Business Central Microsoft 365 Business Premium Demo
Licensing Microsoft 365 E5, Dynamics 365, Business Central, Power Apps Plan 2 Microsoft 365 E5, AI Builder Microsoft 365 Business Premium
Dynamics 365 apps in Power Platform ✅ ❌ ✅
Dataverse enabled by default in Power Platform ✅ ❌ ❌
AI Builder in Power Platform ✅ ✅ ✅

Note

  • Some Business Central features integrate with Dataverse, such as Dynamics 365 Sales integration and Power Platform scenarios. These features are optional and don't affect core Business Central functionality.
  • AI Builder requires Dataverse and sufficient capacity. Some capabilities might appear in a tenant after additional configuration or trials. The table reflects the default configuration of each experience.
When to use each content pack
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central Demo: Use for end-to-end demos and scenarios that combine Business Central with Power Platform and Dynamics 365 apps.
  • Dynamics 365 Business Central: Use for testing, validation, or documentation scenarios where a simpler Dataverse-only environment is sufficient.
  • Microsoft 365 Business Premium Demo: Use for small and medium business scenarios that combine Microsoft 365 capabilities with Business Central and Power Platform, making it well suited for demonstrating end-to-end business workflows that extend beyond ERP.

Trial and demo duration

If you sign up for a trial by using an MDX tenant at the Business Central product page, you can keep that environment for up to 90 days.

However, if you switch to the actual trial experience in Business Central, that experience expires after 30 days. At that point, you can extend the trial. Learn more at extend the trial.

Manage trial duration and tenant limits

To get an overview of your tenants, select My Dashboard > Overview. View details like the content package, expiration date, and admin credentials, or delete a tenant.

Your MDX account has access to a limited number of 90-day and one-year tenants at any given time. Select Roles & Limits to view your current status. MDX also limits how many tenants you can create per day and month. Learn more at CDX FAQ.

You can keep using the demonstration company until the tenant expires if you use it a couple of times per week.

However, if you start the trial experience or switch to the empty My Company, that experience expires after 30 days. If it expires, you can extend the trial, create a new environment, or return to the CRONUS demonstration company. Learn more at Dynamics 365 Business Central Trials and Subscriptions in the business functionality content for Business Central.

Customize your demo environment

Customize the UI

Enable the Premium user experience in the new company's Company Information page, add data for evaluation scenarios, and present the environment to the prospect.

Administrator capabilities

As the demo tenant admin, you can configure the environment extensively:

Because you're signed in as the administrator of the demonstration tenant, you can access the Microsoft 365 administration center. The following list illustrates the types of work that your demo account can do:

  • Subscribe to more apps and services that might be relevant to your demos

  • Configure apps and services by accessing their administration centers

  • Modify or add user accounts, and assign licenses

  • Set up the organizational profile to reflect your prospect's business and brand

Your administrator account also gives you access to the Business Central administration center, where you can make further customizations, such as:

  • Create extra environments within the available quota, depending on your needs.

    For example, you can create a Business Central environment for a specific country/region, or create a dedicated sandbox that you then apply your solution to, such as by deploying your app straight from Visual Studio Code.

      Learn more in Managing Environments.

  • Specify the update window and date for your environments, so that planned updates don't interfere with your demos. Learn more in Set the update window for each environment

  • Add your own email address to the list of notification recipients, so that you're informed of upgrades to your Business Central environments or any issues that might affect your planned demos. Learn more in Manage Tenant-Specific Notifications

  • Try out new functionality in preview environments that are available about two months before a major update. For more information, see Prepare for major updates with preview environments.

With your administrator account, you can install apps from Marketplace, and you can set up integrations between Business Central and other services. For example, you can add the Business Central app for Microsoft Teams, and you can run the Set up your Business Inbox in Outlook assisted setup guide on behalf of the organization as described in the Use Business Central as your Business Inbox in Outlook article. You can also add Dynamics 365 Customer Service, Dynamics 365 Sales, Power Automate, Power Apps, and many more.

Some content packs provide more demonstration data for non-administrator accounts, such as example channels and conversations in Microsoft Teams that can reduce the time needed to customize the experience for a demo. You can sign in with the demo user account for the non-administrator experience.

Add demo data and enhancements

Enhance your demo with sample data and additional capabilities:

Optimize your demo experience

Use Microsoft Edge profiles

Use Microsoft Edge profiles to switch between demo accounts without private browsing. Microsoft Edge can save passwords and sites for your partner account and MDX tenant admin account. Business Central performs well in Microsoft Edge. You can also switch the page layout to Focused to minimize distractions during demos. Learn more at Microsoft Edge documentation.

Tip

For better performance:

  • Connect to a low-latency network for faster response time during demos.
  • Plug in your laptop before demos.

Performance can vary by device and browser, but plugging in your laptop generally helps.

Performance evaluation for presales

If you want to provide a prospect with an online environment where you want to demonstrate the performance and reliability of Business Central online in addition to demonstrating functionality, you must take a few extra steps.

To demonstrate the functionality of the default version of Business Central, without focusing on performance, you can use your own trial experience based on a Microsoft 365 demo account. We recommend that you show the full functionality of the default version by switching the tenant to the 30 day trial and the associated My Company. You can then enable the Premium user experience in the new My Company's Company Information page, populate the new company with the data required for their evaluation scenarios, and present the environment to the prospect.

To demonstrate the functionality of the service, with a focus on performance, you can take the same step as outlined is previous section. Except you also sign up the prospect for the Business Central Premium Trial offer, which is available through your CSP access in the Partner Center. After sign-up, wait 24 hours and then run your performance evaluation. Learn more in Preparing Test Environments of Dynamics 365 Business Central.

That 30 day trial is as close to an actual production environment performance as you can get. You only have those 29 days to run your tests and convince the prospect. But if you prepared everything in advance, you should have time enough.

If the prospect is convinced and decides to buy Business Central, you can then either let them keep the environment that they're currently using, or create a new production environment for them. If the tenant is yours rather than the prospect's, then a new tenant is provided to them.

Learn more about performance and Business Central in Performance Overview.

Demo environment options overview
Use trial-based approaches and sandboxes
Add enhancements: Contoso Coffee, Sales, and more
Preparing Test Environments of Dynamics 365 Business Central
Trials and Subscriptions

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