Peter Weill is the Chairman of the MIT Center for Information Systems Research (CISR), and partners with Gartner on this research. His presentation today was based on many years of research on the value of reuse in information systems.

Weill’s research shows reuse really pays off, but not all reuse pays off equally. He states that firms with more reuse not only perform better financially, but their CIOs are also rated as more effective. MIT CISR and Gartner assessed levels of reuse and performance in more than 1,000 firms focused on business process, data and technology reuse enterprisewide and within business units.

Reuse can come in the form of technology reuse, data reuse, and process reuse. Reuse in departments is easier to do first, but real value comes from reuse on an institutional level. Create centers of excellence and create consistent processes across organizations and locations. Key words he used to describe a path on how to implement reuse in an organization were: Start, Consolidate, Govern, Measure, Share, and Create Incentives.

More of his research is available through the Gartner EXP site.