What's New: Demo Data for Analytics (2025 release wave 2)
Business Central 2025 release wave 2 adds an optional 'analytics' package to the Contoso demo data tool, with more sales and purchasing documents and more variation for reporting and Power BI demos. It can be installed from the tool or is included when all demo data is chosen for a new company.
- Introduction to Enhanced Demo Data for Analytics
- New Demo Data for Sales and Purchasing Documents
- Demo Data Expansion Numbers and Continuous Investment
- Design Principles and Open-Source Model
- Analytics Data as Optional Component
- Partner Resources and Community Engagement
Overview
The video covers new demo data in the Contoso demo data tool, built to make reporting and analytics demos easier. It adds more sales and purchasing documents, with variation across time, categories and salespeople.
It also explains how to get the data: select the package called “analytics”, or choose all demo data when creating a new company. The tool is an open-source project (Contoso Coffee) that accepts community contributions, and further demo data investment is planned for the next release wave.
Key points
- The analytics demo data is a package in the Contoso demo data tool, named ‘analytics’, and can be installed from the tool itself.
- It is also included when a new company is created with all demo data selected.
- It is not part of the core setup: a new company with only the chart of accounts does not get this document demo data unless analytics is enabled.
- Sales quotes go from 2 to 18; blanket sales orders go from none to 4; about 80 more posted sales invoices; return orders now have demo data.
- Purchase orders double from 14 to 29; posted purchase orders also get new demo data.
- The data varies across time, categories and salespeople, and does not have to tie completely into the core demo data.
- The demo data tool (Contoso Coffee) is open source and accepts contributions; the presenter says investment will continue next release wave with more entity types and more variation.
Features
| Feature | Status | At | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enhanced Demo Data Tool for Analytics | status not stated | 0:19 | |
| Sales Documents Demo Data | status not stated | 1:14 | |
| Purchasing Documents Demo Data | status not stated | 1:14 | |
| Analytics Package Installation | status not stated | 1:27 | |
| Continued Demo Data Investment | announced | 2:16 | “Um and we will continue that investments in the next release wave both like more types of demo data and more types of entities” (2:16) |
| Contoso Coffee Open-Source Project | status not stated | 3:00 |
Quotes
- 0:32 “to make it easier to demo reporting and analytics so that means there are types of demo data that is needed for”
- 1:14 “So what we have done in this release wave is adding new or new demo data for sales and for purchasing. So quotes, blankets,”
- 1:55 “Um so for sales quotes, before or without this package, you you had two sales quotes. Now you have 18 for blanket sales orders.”
- 2:05 “You have like 80 invoices posted more than what you used to have. Um for return orders you actually now have demo data.”
- 3:37 “There’s a one small difference between the demo data for analytics and the like the normal transactional demo data is that we can be”
- 4:05 “Also um you don’t have to install analytics and therefore it doesn’t necessarily have to completely tie into the to the kind of the”
Disclaimers in the video
- 2:16 coming-later: we will continue that investments in the next release wave both like more types of demo data and more types of entities
- 5:04 other: Under the hood is a new initiative we started last year where we put in small snippets of things that are coming in the upcoming release, sometimes way before they hit the release plan