The "Infosys 3.0" strategy that the software company says will help it come out of difficulties and better position it for the future will take longer than expected time to produce results, CEO S. D. Shibulal said.

The Bangalore-based $7 billion software company has missed its own sales targets, which led to decline in market vale of its shares. Tough market conditions even forced it to defer an annual pay increase.

The company adopted a new strategy dubbed the "Infosys 3.0," which will make the company to shift its focus from labour-intensive plain vanilla outsourcing services to higher-value software.

But, Mr. Shibulal said that it could take more time to bring the company back on the right track. Referring to the company’s "Infosys 3.0" strategy, he said, "It is a challenging environment. The realisation of the benefits will be delayed short-term.”

It was a rare acknowledgement Infosys because this software company was previously known for hitting or beating its performance targets.

There are worries that ongoing troubles could make harder for the company to retain talent. Recently, the company’s financial services Chief Shaji Farooq resigned to join rival firm Wipro. Its business process outsourcing (BPO) division also lost three senior officials.

Infosys stock has already lost more than 12 per cent so far this year, making the software firm the fourth-worst performer among seventy-one stocks around the globe in the large & mid-cap information technology services sector.