BENGALURU: A software glitch threatens to disrupt the launch of a cutting-edge product by a leading global mobile phone-maker with just hours to go. The company turns to its technology vendor’s team of programmers, but for an immediate fix, the vendor decides to parachute in one from its elite team of ace coders. In a few hours, the glitch is resolved and order is restored. The scenario isn’t overstretched. It’s just the kind of problem-solving ability Infosys is building, putting together a crack team of code writers to break tough programming and software challenges for its top clients. The team will also focus on new technologies such as analytics and cloud computing and work in futuristic projects in areas such as artificial intelligence.These ace programmers, with the ability to use complex software algorithms to crack business problems, will be given top billing and incentivised based on metrics specific to them, according to two people familiar with the developments, who requested anonymity.The idea is to create a system akin to how “Navy SEALs or SWAT teams are deployed by the US government to help regular troops and quickly resolve tough battle or combat situations,” one of the people mentioned above said. “These coders will be quintessential geeks who can solve problems on the fly and will obviously be different and more scholarly than your average programmer.” To be sure, the concept of having an elite programming team within an IT company is not new. Top companies such as Accenture have deployed ace coders to solve complex problems for quite some time now.But this is the first known instance of such programmers being singled out for their talents and rewarded for their expert skills, at a time when outsourcing projects are getting increasingly commoditised and IT firms are anxiously looking to differentiate themselves from competition, amid slowing growth in software export revenues.“Indian IT service providers are good at the services part but they need to provide solutions and products for specific industries,” Roland Schuetz, Lufthansa’s senior vice-president and chief information officer, said in a recent interview with ET.While Infosys’ elite programmers will typically be deployed on challenging, futuristic projects and new areas of technology – which also works as a retention strategy – they can be called upon to solve complex problems arising at traditional outsourcing projects handled by normal programmers. “Any programmer who’s really good and talented would probably end up joining these new-age ecommerce companies, like Flipkart or Snapdeal, unless these traditional IT firms can keep up in terms of the quality of work and assignments that they give to these programmers,” said Viral B Shah, co-inventor of the Julia programming language. “Just money won’t be enough to lure away these talented coders.”The initiative, called Infosys Expert Track, “is set up with the objective of encouraging technologists who are ace programmers. The intent is to create expert coders who will focus on current and future technologies. It is the path for those employees who want to focus exclusively on programming that can solve complex problems for Infosys’ clients,” an Infosys spokeswoman said in an email. “The track will have a flat structure with minimal people management responsibilities.”Infosys has identified around a dozen top programmers for the ‘expert track’.These coders have already undergone a rigorous test where each of them was given three problems to solve. For each of the problems, the coders had to develop a programming solution from the ground up within a few hours.The process is still ongoing and within the next 2-3 months, shortlisted candidates will go through a final round of interview, before being selected into this firefighting team.Infosys is not the only Indian IT company hunting for top talent in the world of coders. India’s top software firm, Tata Consultancy Services , held a worldwide coding competition called CodeVita last month to handpick star programmers.“What’s happening is that the requirements of the clients of top IT firms are changing – they’re coming back to Infosys/TCS, and saying, ‘Hey, our engineering challenges are more diverse and bigger than what they were a decade ago, we need people who have broader skill sets and exposure to newer technologies,” said Sachin Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Bangalore-based startup HackerEarth (Additional reporting by Jochelle Mendonca)