Gandelman

Gandelman

Customer profile

Gandelman is a family business with a long history in the Caribbean and a strong position in luxury retail. Established in 1931, the company evolved from its original roots into a fine jewelry business with multiple stores in Aruba. Its public website highlights both premium brands and a strong service promise, including after-sales support for customers near and far. That combination makes luxury retail and service central to the way Gandelman presents itself and runs its business.

For an organization operating several stores and serving clients with high expectations, operational reliability matters well beyond the point of sale. Product handling, customer communication, stock visibility and administrative follow-up all need to support the same experience. In that context, internal systems are not just back-office tools; they shape how efficiently teams can work together. Gandelman’s project therefore centered on building a stronger foundation for a connected retail operation that supports both day-to-day execution and long-term continuity.

Reason for change

Over many years, Gandelman invested heavily in automation and built a solid local IT landscape. That included a robust network, its own server room and a mix of on-premises applications such as Counterpoint, Sage and tools developed specifically for the company. In Aruba’s environment, where electricity and internet availability could not always be taken for granted, resilient local solutions made practical sense. The drawback was that this approach gradually produced a fragmented software landscape across the organization.

As a result, information did not move smoothly from one process to another. Teams often had to rely on manual re-entry, spreadsheet exchanges, printed documents and other workarounds to keep daily operations running. With infrastructure on Aruba improving over time, Gandelman saw an opportunity to rethink that setup. The company wanted a future-oriented solution that matched its long-standing ambition to stay at the forefront of technology in the Caribbean while reducing operational friction through better process integration .

Challenge

The challenge was broader than replacing one system with another. Gandelman needed to connect the practical realities of store sales, stock movements, purchasing and administration in a way that would reduce dependence on disconnected tools. In luxury retail, accuracy and timing matter, and every handoff between systems increases the chance of delay, duplication or uncertainty. A new platform therefore had to make information easier to share and easier to trust, with stronger traceability across workflows as an important objective.

At the same time, the solution had to fit the organization’s operating model. Different stores, different roles and multiple process steps all had to work together without creating unnecessary complexity for users. Sales and customer follow-up needed to connect naturally with inventory and invoicing, while the system also had to feel secure and professional in daily use. Gandelman was looking for software that covered core processes in a standard way but still allowed room for company-specific requirements where those made a real difference.

Odoo solution

After evaluating several ERP suppliers, Gandelman selected Odoo as the next step in its digital evolution. The choice reflected a clear move away from a collection of separate applications toward one integrated environment for the business. The discovery work focused on understanding the current setup, the desired future state and the process areas with the highest impact. That created a practical route toward one integrated business platform that could support the company for years to come.

The implementation approach combined standard Odoo functionality with targeted customization where necessary. In the available source material, customer-specific CRM fields and reporting adjustments around profit and loss and balance reporting are explicitly mentioned. This indicates that the project was not treated as a purely generic rollout, but as a structured fit between Odoo and the way Gandelman manages information. Odoo provided the common framework, while selected extensions helped align the system more closely with real operating practices inside the company.

Apps and processes

The solution brings together several process domains within Odoo. Sales and CRM support the path from lead and opportunity to quotation and order, while Point of Sale is used to support store transactions through a smart retail interface. Invoicing connects the commercial process to the financial follow-up of sales. Bringing these areas into one system reduces the need for manual handovers and creates a more consistent flow of information, with sales and POS alignment playing a key role in daily operations.

On the operational side, Inventory and Purchase are central to the setup. Receipts, deliveries, internal transfers, stock counts, locations and serial or batch tracking are all part of the supported workflow described in the source material. This gives the business a more structured way to manage product movements from incoming goods to sale or fulfillment. Additional apps such as Documents, Website, eCommerce and Helpdesk contribute to a wider digital landscape in which transactions, information and follow-up can work together more coherently through inventory and purchasing control .

Result

The intended outcome of the project is a way of working with fewer manual steps and stronger alignment between departments. The source material explicitly points to a fully integrated system, more professionalism, greater security and significant progress toward a paperless organization. For a business previously relying on multiple systems and operational workarounds, those are meaningful improvements in themselves. The most concrete result is therefore a unified digital foundation on which Gandelman can continue to build and refine its processes.

Other benefits should be understood mainly as expected improvements that grow as teams adopt the new workflows consistently. Those include less manual effort, better focus on clients and stronger coordination between stores and back-office functions. The value of traceability and reporting also tends to increase as more activity is handled within the same system. For Gandelman, the project is not only about introducing Odoo, but about supporting a more future-ready and paper-light organization with processes that fit the business more naturally.