OK -- now we're getting somewhere!

Yes, Perl can launch an external program, most likely using system. I'm not that familiar with IE, but certainly Firefox can be launched with a URL so that it opens to that location on the web.

Again, a safer approach would be to launch the browser with a static local page that has a link to a number of locations where SVG viewer could be obtained -- the machine you're installing on may not have a connection to the Net, and you should plan for that eventuality.