I've had some experience acting as a liaison between the business side (read "non-tech") of a company and the IT side. I spent the better part of two years doing precisely that for a major online music equipment retailer.

IMHO, anybody with a touch of common sense ought to be able to present a proposal (like including XML::Simple) in a way that demonstrate both the time and financial savings it brings to the project as a whole. On top of that, pointing out the complexity of writing an XML parser on your own (simply saying "I can't do that" works!) is a plus.

In my experience, I found my best ally to be someone on the business side with some technical competency that had close ties to people in IT *and* the financial side of the company. Using them can benefit you in the sense that they can back your ideas from "inside" enemy lines.

In my case, it was the director of operations - she worked closely with the CFO & controller and had a husband who was a computer programmer. I typically would take my ideas to her and demonstrate how they would help her. She'd then take the idea to her husband overnight, then typically sponsor my proposal in meetings with the upper-ups as a cost-saving idea.

It's amazing how they'll say "no" to you, but when someone inside suggests it they are more open to the idea.