HPE New Zealand is the next to be hit by redundancies caused by their global restructuring initiative, HPE Next, according to rumours.

Since the announcement of the initiative in October last year, there have been unofficial reports of large-scale redundancies across the many countries in which HPE operates.

Now employees of the New Zealand branch look to be next in line, with up to 18 employees facing the ramifications of restructuring.

The company's FY18 Outlook announcement stated that HPE Next was designed to simplify the organisational structure, redesign business processes and prioritize investments in growth areas, with two-thirds of the $1.1 billion funding being utilised to optimise the workforce.

Antonio Neri, HPE president at the time, said, “The goal of HPE Next is to simplify our operations, strengthen our execution and shift our investments in innovation towards high growth and higher margin. Ultimately, HPE Next will create a fit-for-purpose company and deliver the next wave of shareholder value.

As of the first of this month, Neri took over as CEO of HPE from Meg Whitman who resigned shortly after announcing the restructuring, leaving Neri to implement the initiative with a goal of attaining $1.5 billion in gross cost saving over three years.

Since the HP split in November 2015 HPE has refocused on its core corporate and enterprise clientele and in May 2016 it divested it's 'Enterprise Services' consulting business to CSC.

“The close of this transaction leaves HPE with a crystal clear mission, tied directly to the solutions our customers and partners tell us they want most,” Whitman said at the time.

Since then, HPE has doubled down on this promise, making several enterprise IT acquisitions including SGI and Nimble Storage.

In November of last year, it also announced a distribution agreement with Dicker Data NZ, an extension of their long-term agreement in Australia.

TechDay has approached HPE for comment and will update the story as details unfold.