We have a server that runs ARD and we use it for Network Discovery. I'm in the process of writing a few scripts to grab the ARD lists and push them to Support Analysts machines.
However the com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist is not the key file here.
Does anybody know if this is possible?
I believe you can do this with automator. You can have an automator script pull your list of ARD computers, (I suppose you could do this from the remote task server as well,) and then execute various functions after that list is pulled in.
You can also of course execute AppleScripts (and therefore shell scripts,) through Automator as well, so this should be all you need.
In short: Yes!
In case Harv's yes wasn't emphatic enough - Apple Remote Desktop and Automator were made for each other.
You can export lists of machines from ARD explicitly or programatically using AppleScript and Automator.
I've know of no program that "needs" Automator more than ARD. Having remote desktop to act on many machines means the automation saves you serious amounts of time getting your tasks done.
The time you spend learning Automator for managing macs is almost always repaid hundreds of times over when you are managing more than 20 machines for any length of time. Do also explore the built in Asset Management functions before you dive into Automator for the first time. Since ARD stores all data in a SQL type database, you can always dump the fields that interest you to a flat file if you prefer that over structured access to the live data.