When Wendy Beban and her team got the chance to slash some red tape for the citizens and employees of Auckland, New Zealand, they charged at the problem like champs. Back then, if you wanted to report something as simple as a broken public park bench to the city, you had to call a government contact center, send a message to a generic government e-mail address, or go see someone at a government office, in person. That interaction then set off a 55-step manual business process

Suppliers play a vital role in creating experiences for citizens and customers of U.S. federal government agencies. Yet, the government...