With XML, content can be reused or "repurposed" more easily than with standard word-processed documents because it can be created and stored using "tags." A technical writer could create a central database of information stored under appropriate customized "tags" that could later be retrieved and reused independently of the application or platform in which it was stored.
Writers seldom reuse information written by others since they either don't know it exists or cannot easily find it. In a large organization, if agreed upon tags are used to store information, the information becomes accessible to all, and the value of the information is leveraged because it also becomes available to future writers.