How the VP of Finance at a leading geothermal company uses Aleph to scale FP&A without adding headcount.
With Mike Russo, VP of Finance at Dandelion Energy
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Dandelion Energy is a geothermal company that sells to home builders and developers, working with HVAC professionals to install geothermal systems in new homes. It's a complex hybrid — part service business (drilling and installation), part hardware business — with data spread across NetSuite, Salesforce, and Stripe.
Challenges before Aleph:
"In previous experiences, you've got Finance and Accounting in one toolset and Ops in another," Mike said. "It creates one-way communication — datasets that don't speak to each other."
- Siloed systems: Finance and Accounting lived in NetSuite while Ops lived in Salesforce, with critical project data completely disconnected from the financial model.
- Rigid ERP: NetSuite handled core accounting but lacked the flexibility for custom mappings, regional views, and the strategic lenses the team needed.
- Manual processes: The team was emailing Excel models back and forth with undocumented data pulls. Mike had to manually rebuild the foundation before any real analysis could happen.
- No cross-functional visibility: Finance, Accounting, and Supply Chain had no shared view of the data.
"When I think about the value we’re getting from Aleph, I look at it in terms of headcount. For me, Aleph is an FP&A analyst. It allows me to replace a full-time resource I would otherwise have to hire."
The solution and results after Aleph:
For Mike Russo, the value of Aleph comes down to headcount. Today, Dandelion Energy relies on Aleph as the connective tissue between its finance stack, its operational data, and its cross-functional planning:
- Headcount saved: Aleph provides the output of a full FP&A analyst. Mike allocates the budget he would otherwise spend on a full-time hire directly to the tool — scaling finance without scaling headcount.
- Unified financial model: Project data from Salesforce and financial data from NetSuite now live together natively in one model — no BI tool, no data warehouse, no manual stitching required.
- Cross-functional source of truth: Finance, Accounting, and Supply Chain access the same inputs and outputs. The S&OP process feeds directly into financial outputs — no more emailing spreadsheets.
- Custom mappings as a translation layer: Accounting keeps their processes in NetSuite, but Finance gets the exact strategic view they need through Aleph's mapping layer.
"The tool is excellent, but it's even better when you have a team that responds live," Mike said. "When we had issues with the ADP API, the Aleph team jumped right in to try and solve it themselves. That support is what makes the tool truly valuable."
The Impact
Aleph transformed Dandelion Energy's finance team from data wranglers to strategic enablers.
- Analyst capacity unlocked: A tool that replaces the output of a full-time FP&A hire — cutting the cost, onboarding, and overhead of growing the finance team.
- Operational visibility: Cross-functional teams now work from one shared model — giving Finance, Accounting, and Supply Chain real-time alignment on the numbers.
- More time for strategy: With data cleaning and variance analysis automated, Mike's team spends less time fixing foundations and more time on scenario planning and business guidance.
To learn more about Dandelion Energy, visit https://dandelionenergy.com
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