Martel has made monuments since 1903. With 9 locations across Ontario and Quebec, it moved from Excel sheets and paper cards to one place for every order, with the GordE team behind them.
Vankleek Hill, Ontario
9 locations across Ontario and Quebec. Fifth generation of family ownership.
February 2026
Granite monuments, columbaria and mausoleums, from plaques in the ground to walk-in family mausoleums. Retail and wholesale, for families, funeral homes, cemeteries and other monument retailers. Cemetery lettering, repairs and cleaning.
Paper cards, file folders and Excel sheets
At Martel, an approved layout used to be marked by turning a family name red in an Excel sheet. Orders came in by email from the sales offices. A copy went to the graphic designers and another stayed at the front, and more copies were made as the order moved through production.
The sheet tracked what each person ordered, which salesperson sold it, which cemetery it was going to, whether the foundation was done and whether the layout was approved. When a layout was approved, two cards were made: one to get the granite, one for the stencil and engraving. If the granite had not arrived, the card waited in a file cabinet until it did.
It worked, but it depended on people remembering. If the red was forgotten, the order could be treated as not approved and would not be placed in production. If the card was not taken out when the granite arrived, production was delayed. Papers could get lost or misplaced. A second Excel sheet tracked the granite ordered from quarries overseas, so every order was typed in again by hand, and an 8 could be typed as a 6. A payment made under one phone number and an order under another could leave two records for the same client, and it moved too fast to catch.
Cemetery lettering had the same problem. The order was printed and handed to the engraver, and it was tracked only once the work was done. When the engraver emailed a batch of photos, finding one from two years back meant asking, “What was the name? What telephone was it under?” says Aude Martel, Vice-President, part of the fifth generation of the family.
Martel has 9 locations across two provinces and is growing. They wanted to see every order online from wherever they are, and to handle purchase orders and approvals the same way.
When Martel first met the GordE team, there was no inventory in GordE. Martel said they would not go ahead without it, because their inventory is large and needed control. “You guys were willing to figure it out and incorporate it,” says Joann Raby, production assistant. Later, Martel said they needed scheduling so they could stop running Excel next to GordE. The GordE team is building it.
They trusted GordE as a partner. “We found that we had good communication, and GordE’s team was willing to add to the platform to make it more suitable for our needs,” Aude says. And GordE was built by a monument business.
Martel & Sons Inc. (Martel et Fils Inc. in French) has made and set memorial monuments since 1903. Napoléon Martel, who came from Vermont, started the company with his sons Arthur, George and Albert, all stonecutters. Today the fifth generation, Julien and Aude, runs it from Vankleek Hill. Its guiding words are passion, respect and craftsmanship.
Martel offers a turnkey service, from the foundation in the ground to design, manufacturing and installation, and it also offers services directly in the cemetery, such as engraving, cleaning and restoring headstones. Its monuments are made of granite, and Martel keeps a large inventory.
When Martel came on in February 2026, the GordE team ran a two-day, in-person training session on site at Martel's headquarters. It included the design, accounting, operations and production teams, and the team worked closely with each to get them comfortable.
GordE also made changes to fit Martel's needs. That included supporting Martel's new accounting setup in Sage Intacct, and making sure the two could talk to each other for proper financial reporting and invoicing.
Staff were cautious at first. They were used to stacks of paper on their desks and asked where things would be found and who would put them in. For about the first two months, a few of those questions came up every week. Then it became more like a habit. “Now it's like night and day,” Joann says. “Now, I think we'd be afraid to go back to the way it was.”
Martel is moving across in stages and keeps Excel running alongside GordE as a safety net. “We always had a safety net,” Aude says, and they say it would have been next to impossible to turn off Excel one day and switch the next.
An order is now entered once, by one person. When granite is ordered, the size on the purchase order is the size that was entered, with no retyping, and each client is set up once.
The designers see approvals, files and notes in one place. Only the approved layout goes on the server, which Martel believes has cut down on mistakes. Once a layout is approved, it moves to stencil, so the stencil section shows what to make.
The setting ticket looks the same for every order. The cemetery address is on it, and so is the printed picture of the approval. Before, someone had to go to the file at the front to check whether a picture was attached. Installers want the same information in the same spot, and they now have it.
The due date goes to the top of the list. When an order is not approved, Martel can call the salesperson: “You want this monument for this day, but it's not approved.” Late in the year, when approvals are being chased, they can see which offices are still waiting. Salespeople are using GordE more and more, and some clients have asked for a login so they can see where their orders stand.
On the phone with a client, it is easy to say where an order stands: “It's in production or we're waiting for the approval, so can you please approve the sketch?” Aude says.
“They're present. They're there. They will answer.”
Martel describes the relationship in terms of support. When something goes wrong, they know who to call.
“If we have an issue, we know we have a contact,” Aude says. They add: “We want to have partners that help us grow.”
Over the summer, Martel and GordE made a lot of changes together. “You were responsive,” Aude says. GordE also adapted the system to how Martel works, with both wholesale and retail.
Martel has been asked why they don't build their own system. They say they don't have the time, and that going it alone has a cost: “You're kind of alone in this.” Having a whole team behind them means they don't have to work out overnight why something isn't working.
For cemetery lettering, the order and the finished picture now sit together in GordE. Salespeople and wholesale clients can see a completed order with its picture. “It's day and night,” Aude says.
Designers can move forward “without having to run around the building looking for papers or people to give them their answers,” Joann says.
Martel can see engraving orders by office, including the ones still pending. The engraver photographs finished work at the cemetery and uploads it to GordE, so invoicing can go ahead without a phone call.
Martel says to start by knowing what you need. “You have to know what you want. You have to know what you're looking for.”
Take a whole season to get used to GordE, they say, and don't rush anyone. And they point to the support behind it. “No matter even how little or large the company is, you need the support system,” Joann says.
For Martel, the details of an order now sit in one place, and the people who built it are a phone call away.
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