Rob Purks CIO & Management Consultant

Overview

In most telecom environments, OPEX pressure isn’t driven by a single decision — it’s the cumulative effect of years of architectural layering, vendor dependencies, and well-intentioned investments that no longer align to where the business is going.

What’s interesting is that when organizations start moving toward more composable approaches, it often becomes less about technology and more about clarity — understanding what should actually change versus what can be optimized and extended.

Interested to hear how others are approaching this right now — are you seeing a shift toward more targeted, incremental modernization, or are full transformation programs still the default path?

Balancing Innovation and OPEX in Telecom: Why Composable ERP Is Emerging as a Strategic Imperative

Telecom leaders are being asked to do something that is fundamentally at odds — accelerate innovation while simultaneously reducing operating expenses. As networks expand, regulatory demands increase, and technology cycles compress, this tension is becoming more acute across the industry.

In my previous article, Strategies for Telecom Executives—Navigating the OPEX Conundrum, I explored the structural pressures driving this challenge. The reality is clear: traditional cost-reduction approaches are no longer sufficient when technology spend is deeply embedded in the core of the business.

The question now is not whether to invest, but how to do so with greater precision, flexibility, and long-term impact.

One of the most practical approaches emerging in the market is composable ERP.

Composable ERP is not about replacing entire systems. It is about rethinking how enterprise platforms evolve. By breaking systems into modular components, telecom organizations can retain stable, proven core capabilities while selectively modernizing areas that drive the most value.

Rather than committing to large-scale, high-risk transformation programs, leaders can align investment decisions more closely to business outcomes—introducing new capabilities where they are needed, without triggering unnecessary cost escalation or operational disruption.

This approach enables telecom operators to scale infrastructure without overprovisioning, accelerate time-to-market for new services, and improve cost efficiency by maximizing existing resources. It also supports incremental modernization by integrating new technologies alongside legacy systems, allowing organizations to innovate without overhauling their entire environment.

At the same time, composable architectures create a foundation for automation. AI-driven capabilities can reduce operational overhead, improve service delivery, and shift resources away from manual processes toward more strategic initiatives.

What emerges is not just a technical architecture, but a different operating model—one that prioritizes continuous evolution over episodic transformation, business-driven decision-making over vendor-led roadmaps, and targeted investment over broad, capital-intensive change.

For telecom executives, the implication is clear. The path forward is not about choosing between innovation and cost discipline. It is about building the structural flexibility to achieve both.

Composable ERP represents one of the most effective ways to begin that shift.

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Rob Purks is a Founding Partner at Lumerai Advisors , a technology strategy advisory firm. Lumerai Advisors provides an unbiased perspective which is not influenced by vendor relationships.  With over 150 years of CIO and technology experience, the founding partners bring an honest and complete perspective on technology strategies and challenges.

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