By far the best solution is to have a config script driven solution.
If you feel that the re-write necessary to do this is too gargantuan, have you thought about trying to obtain more coding colleagues, and have it as an ongoing open source project?
This way, you open up what sounds like a very useful tool to the largest possible audience, without taking too much of the load on your own shoulders.
As per Merlyn's post above, there are Perl modules around that happily process XML, which could take a lot of work from you too.
I tend to use XML, as most people feel pretty at home with the style of it, and it's very easily extensible.
Anyway, that's just my tuppence worth.

Malk

*I lost my .sig. Do you have a spare?*