[AccessD] Externalized Control Information - Slow at Times

We have an Access 2007 application that has several "External Control Tables" that are stored in a separate accdr file.

The users like this approach because a "system administrator" (end-user) can control many features of the system without contacting IT.

For example, the system has 10 tabs, but not all users can see all 10 tabs.  If a user is in the HR department, they can only see three tabs.  If they are in the Accounting department, they can see 5 tabs, etc.  The control of which tabs a user can see is stored in one of our "External Control Tables".

This approach works very nicely most of the time.  Once in a while, however, response time is a problem.  For example, usually the Tab control info can be obtained in about ½ second.  However, occasionally it may take 10 - 15 seconds.  We are not sure why we see this slowness.

We are looking into alternatives.  We want to retain the system administrator's ability to maintain the "Control Info", but we would like to eliminate the occasional response time problem.

I am curious if others have built systems that have "externalized control info".  If so, where is the best place to store this data?  

(If we simply store it in the "Main" accdr file, then we have a problem with our change management process.  IT works in Test and moves things into PROD.  We don't want IT to have to maintain this info in TEST.) 

Thanks,

Brad