Avonik
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 Public Biography

View Philippe Schlier's profile on LinkedIn

Mr. Schlier presently is the founder of Avonik, specializing in high level consulting within the information technology and process improvement sectors for large and mid-size companies.

Previously Mr. Schlier founded GSX Groupware Solutions and served as CEO and CTO from 1996 till 2008. He was also the principle architect and designer for the companies’ leading monitoring software product GSX Monitor for messaging environments, including Lotus Notes, BlackBerry, Exchange and Sametime to name but a few.

Mr. Schlier successfully led GSX Groupware Solutions from a startup to a respectable organization with over 550 worldwide clients, including 27% of Fortune 100.

With over 15 years of experience working as software designer and messaging network architect, Mr. Schlier worked for IBM and Arthur Andersen/Andersen Consulting. As a contractor, he led the design and deployment of several of the world's largest E-mail networks. He is an internationally seasoned professional and an industry recognized expert and leader in this domain.

Mr. Schlier was awarded both a Masters degree and a Bachelor of Science degree in Information Systems and Science Engineering by the University of Sophia-Antipolis.



 Specialties

  • Software Architecture & Design: Expert
  • Quality Assurance: Expert
  • Messaging & Collaboration systems: Expert
  • Project & Team management: Good
  • A proven resource recognized for experience and ethics
    • CEO / CTO /  Head of product management
    • Private equity
    • Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) reduction
    • Collaboration tools & Social networks
    • Programming languages and technologies
    • New energies
    • Trading platforms
CV in PDF (62 KB)


Recommendations in PDF
(72 KB)


 Experience

¤ Apr.09 - now
Avonik CTO, Contractor
¤ Mar. 08 - Mar. 09 GSX CTO
¤ Aug. 95 - Feb. 08 GSX Founder, CEO, CTO & Contractor
¤ Sep. 92 - Jul. 95 Arthur Andersen & Andersen consulting Lotus Notes & network specialist supporting 600+ worldwide servers
¤ Mar. 92 - Aug. 92 Sita research center R&D on groupware products
¤ 89 - 92 IBM laboratory Developer of microcode for communication controlers

Software Architecture & Design: Expert
=> Assist companies develop concepts and architecture for their software as well as improve existing software
  • Concentrated skills rarely found in a single individual
  • Ability to quickly achieve a global view of complex systems and model tangible and value added solutions
  • As a former programmer supporting multi-million lines of software code, has extensive knowledge of technology, development concepts, tools and methodologies
  • Provides realistic, no-nonsense solutions and significant return on investment strategies
  • Successful track record of accomplishments as software designer:
  • Designed the GSX range of monitoring, management and reporting products from scratch and consistently improved them over 14 years
  • Efficiently adapted products to address clients’ fluctuating business requirements and technology changes within the fast moving monitoring domain.
  • GSX Monitor products became the leading monitoring software for complex messaging systems globally
  • Developed modules of IBM communication controllers which remain in use almost 20 years later
Quality Assurance: Expert
=> Provide evaluations and assessments to help companies reduce software maintenance costs. Offered re-engineering and improvement guidance for existing systems.
Messaging & Collaboration systems: Expert
=> Provide guidance to companies with regards to their communication strategy
Project & Team management: Good
=> Assist senior management in the reorganization efforts of their companies to facilitate increased productivity, ensure costs reductions and help them grow to an international scale
  • Proven successes improving business models and saving costs to achieve up to a 50% profitability
  • 15 years successfully managing international and multi-cultural  teams located in several countries
  • Successfully grew product sales to create a worldwide software leader in its domain
  • Managed budgets up to €5M
A proven resource recognized for experience and ethics. => Because business improves when employees and clients get the recognition they deserve, working hard, enjoying life, striving for excellence, fairness, honesty and passion are not incompatible with a successful and productive business


 Miscellaneous

Date of birth: 6/7/67 
Languages: French (first language), English (fluent)
Nationality: French
Swiss work permit: C
Army: Corporal in Mountain Infantry
Driving licenses: car, boat, motorbike
Diving license: PADI

 Recommendations

Throughout the course of my professional career, I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with several great people. The individuals below are some of those people who honoured me with their recommendations.

“I met Philippe on-site at a common customer in 1998. I was impressed about the service he was providing, about the quality and the attention to detail he had about his product and how proud he was of what it could do. Over the years we crossed paths many times again, often for common customers and he was always open to listen to new requests and implement the changes in a timely manner, often positively surprising customers. His dedication was astonishing, his knowledge and understanding of large and small environments, their different challenges and requirements was impressive. I'd recommend Philippe to anybody for any role as I'm sure he'd outperform at any challenge. He's a great person to work with, I hope to have a chance to meet and work with him many times again.”

Ivan Dell'Era , Software Engineer , Lotus/IBM

“Philippe is one of those IT experts who seems to sleep only a few hours per day, because he is taking care of customer requests around the clock and did not stop until the issue is solved. He and his team handled all sizes of companies (250 - 300.000 seats) around the globe. The legendary GSX user meetings in Nice have been real communities! That means attendees like the way of respectfull treatment and how their requirements influence the road map of Philippe's GSX solutions. That's the way how software vendors should work together with customers, prospects and business partners. Through my 17 years in the IT Business he is defintely one of the TOP-3 experts I would advise to go for in software projects and consulting.”

Frank Gerlach , Sales Manager , Buecker GmbH

“Philippe is a pragmatic and talented individual who is well versed in both technology trends and business development. He demonstrates a passion for excellence, whether it is managing his company, developing new products or ensuring his customers, clients and staff have the necessary tools and information to succeed. Philippe is a reliable and trustworthy manager who I had the privilege of working for. I highly recommend him to future employers or clients without hesitation.”

Richard Denisevich , Senior Consultant & Managing Partner , RJD Solution Partners

“I've worked with Philippe on numerous projects with Arthur Andersen in Zurich, Switzerland. He contributed a great deal of technical and project management knowledge to our projects at a large financial services company. Philippe is s very personable, easy to work with, and has an exceptional work ethic and he always puts the customer first. His subject matter expertise in complex messaging architecture and the system administration processes added tremendous value for our client. I highly recommend Philippe to anybody and would hire him again in a heartbeat.”

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert , Creative

Markus Engel
hired Philippe as a IT Consultant in 1995 , and hired Philippe more than once

“Philippe is a knowledgeable and talented professional who I strongly recommend. I have worked with Philippe for more than 10 years and know him to be innovative, talented, practical, supportive, and honest to a fault. With his natural passion for excellence and drive to succeed, I would entrust Philippe with any project and highly recommend him to any future clients.”

Scott Treggiari , Program Director , LotusUserGroup.org

“I have had the pleasure of working with Philippe for approximately three and one half years. In the time that I have worked with Philippe, he has demonstrated an aptitude for new technology and learning new things. It is apparent from his quest for knowledge that he is committed to life-long learning. He is deligent and dedicated worker and is always ready to go the extra mile to complete projects and achieve goals in a pinch. I believe Philippe will go far in life because of his openess to new ideas and concepts. I believe that he would strive for excellence in any employment position he holds. I would gladly recommend Philippe for any organization as an outstanding employee. Any question, please feel free to contact me. Rais Sajid Team Lead, Product Engineer Wireless, BlackBerry” 

Rais Sajid , Product Engineer, BlackBerry , JPMC

“I know Philippe for more than 12 Years. We worked together on a very large project (rollout Domino at a company with more than 10.000 employees). At all times I have found Philippe to be very reliable, hard-working, conscientious, honest and foresighted. His skills shown in that project were really very high and I and the team learned a lot from him. After that project Philippe founded the company GSX. We are successful using products created by GSX since more than 10 years. I can truely recommend Philippe” 

Jens Mathiessen , Senior System Engineer , SwissRe


“Philippe has been my main contact at GSX during my contracts with two customers using the GSX products; Tele2 and Alfa Laval. Through these companies I have my own experiences from cooperation with Philippe, as well as second opinions from those customers. We all share the same opinion; Philippe has a service approach and a delivery quality that we have never met somewhere else. Simply the best. Philippe has my strongest recommendations.” 

Johan Boström , Owner , Johan Boström Konsult AB


I can highly recommend Phillippe. He is very passioned in what he is doing. He has a very deep technical knowledge in many areas.He quickly understand your questions and ideas and easily see it is a bigger picture. He helps you very fast and you can always trust that you will be helped when you asked. I am so sad to se him leaving GSX and whoever will work with him in the future is very lucky to have him!” 

Pernille Herold , Lotus Notes Administrator , Niro A/S

“Philippe is a very smart person that understands the value of delivering top notch service in order to create and keep customers. We were a reseller of his products and every time an issue appeared, he was quickly there to help us and resolve the technical or business problem of the moment.” 

Roberto Pulido , CEO , Polaris, S.A.

“Philippe has managed to make us change our monitoring tools by providing the best tools for Domino monitoring. The move is not only technical, but Philippe has always been reactive to our requests and made himself systematically available This person can be summarized in 3 words, expertise, availability and professionalism” 

Fabrice Arnaudo , Messaging Eng , Orange Business Services

“Philippe has been an asset to Lafarge providing timely personable service with quality GSX products and support. He always delivered on the premise that the client comes first by ensuring the needs of the customer come first. He is an asset to anyone looking for out-of-the-box customizable solutions catered to the needs of the client.”

Top qualities: Great Results , Personable , Creative

Joseph Biello , Lafarge

“Philippe is one of the most knowledgeable people in Domino I know, and I am sure he can extend his skills and wonderful disposition to further areas. A person you can depend on indeed.”

Stig Eksten , Owner , PlanTwo

“I know Philippe for a long time as a excellent technical expert, hard working and absolutely dependable provider of services. Philipe has been part of global IT projects with high visibility and high impact where he was a key resource in achieving success.” 

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert , High Integrity

Friedrich Straker , Swiss Re

“I have worked with Philippe during several services engagement for Valeo and DGI. He has both  consulting skills (understand the functional problems) and is able to translate into a technical solution, using his wide knowledge of the Lotus Domino environement. Really a very reliable IT Consultant. Good luck, Philippe” 

Top qualities: Personable , Expert , High Integrity

Laurent Landreau
hired Philippe as a IT Consultant in 2004 , and hired Philippe more than once

“Philippe has proven himself as a strong leader that can get the job done. His technical skills and vision have helped him make such a success of GSX. Philippe is an asset to anyone who works with him and you can't help learning something just by watching and listening him. I have definitely enjoyed working with him and participating in some of his workshops” 

Julian Davies , Notes Administrator , HSBC Private Bank

“Very passionate an successfull entrepreneur, I must say Philippe has the perfect skills for developping successfull products on a large scale”

Laurent Prat , CTO , MAILWATCHER

“Philippe is a very clever person, it is alway a pleasure to work with philippe. I really recommend him.” 

Top qualities: Great Results , Expert , High Integrity

David de Bros
hired Philippe as a IT Consultant in 2002 , and hired Philippe more than once