Tesco is investing $45m in its IT infrastructure in a bid to solve problems more quickly and improve customer service.

The system - which will give the retailer an easy, at-a-glance view of its global IT infrastructure - will cut costs and make it easier to manage its sprawling IT estate, the company said.

The grocer is consolidating a number of different systems into one, allowing the entire estate to be viewed as a whole.

Previously, a number of different suppliers monitored separate parts of the business but from now on one company, CA Technologies, will manage and monitor Tesco’s networks, transactions and suppliers across the company including its website, banking and mobile businesses.

Tesco chief information officer Mike McNamara said the aim is to tame a “very big, distributed and heterogeneous infrastructure”. He said: “Our systems infrastructure needs to work for our IT team in order to do their job for our customers, our colleagues and our suppliers.”

The grocer will be able to see more easily what services are being impacted by infrastructure problems, and act quickly to solve problems.

CA Technologies Account Director Keith Andrews said it also gives the retailer a platform to support new technologies such as hand held scanners and mobile payments.