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The Algorithm
vs PwC Technology Advisory×Healthcare
Why Healthcare companies switch

The Algorithm vs. PwC Technology Advisory in Healthcare — Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences

PwC Technology Advisory's approach to Healthcare technology follows the same model that has driven their recent performance problems. There is a better model.

The Problem

What PwC Technology Advisory gets wrong in Healthcare

PwC Technology Advisory's approach to Healthcare technology follows the same model that has driven their recent performance problems. PwC Australia government scandal (2023): partner leaked confidential Treasury tax policy to advise corporate clients — government banned from federal contracts, forced to sell government practice for $1

Healthcare technology operates under specific regulatory and operational constraints that generalist consulting firms consistently underestimate. Pharmaceutical technology lives under FDA 21 CFR Part 11. PwC Technology Advisory's model does not account for the domain qualification required to navigate this environment.

Compliance in Healthcare is not a consulting deliverable — it is an architectural constraint. PwC Technology Advisory treats compliance as a separate workstream that produces documentation. The systems that result require significant remediation before they can survive an audit in a healthcare environment.

PwC Australia government scandal (2023): partner leaked confidential Treasury tax policy to advise corporate clients — government banned from federal contracts, forced to sell government practice for $1
StratCo scandal: use of confidential government information for commercial advantage resulted in industry-wide review of consulting firm conduct
UK government contracts under review following Australian precedent — reputational damage in key regulated-industry market
Evergrande audit: PwC China fined 441M yuan and suspended for six months (2024) for signing off on fraudulent Evergrande accounts
The Algorithm

What we deploy instead

Our healthcare engineering teams are domain-qualified before they are assigned to an engagement. They understand the regulatory framework — FDA 21 CFR PART 11 and HIPAA — as an engineering constraint, not a compliance checklist.

Every system we deploy for a healthcare client is compliant at the infrastructure layer. The architecture enforces the controls. ALICE validates compliance at every commit. The result is a system that passes audits because it was built to, not because documentation was assembled after the fact.

Compliance

FDA 21 CFR PART 11 and HIPAA built into the architecture from day one — enforced automatically by ALICE at every commit.

Delivery

Fixed-price engagements. Production system in 8-20 weeks. No discovery phase. No change orders.

Team

Domain-qualified engineers with healthcare experience. The senior engineer who scopes the engagement is the senior engineer who delivers it.

IP

Full source code and documentation transferred at close. No licensing. No managed services dependency.

Compliance

The compliance difference

FDA 21 CFR PART 11 and HIPAA compliance is an architectural constraint in healthcare. PwC Technology Advisory treats it as a consulting deliverable. We build it into the infrastructure.

fda 21 cfr part 11
hipaa
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Typical Engagement

What switching from PwC Technology Advisory looks like

A typical healthcare engagement runs 10-20 weeks to a production system. Team: 8-16 engineers, all domain-qualified. Fixed price. Full IP transfer at close.

Week 1

Architecture review and scope definition. We review existing deliverables and identify gaps.

Weeks 2-4

Scope locked, team assembled, first sprint underway. Working code from week two.

Weeks 8-12

First production milestone — a working integration or system component, not a document.

Close

Full IP transfer. Source code, documentation, operational runbooks. Your team runs the system.

DECISION GUIDE

Failed Vendor Recovery Playbook

Step-by-step framework for recovering from a failed PwC Technology Advisory engagement — from emergency stabilisation through full re-platforming. 4-phase playbook covering stabilise, assess, transition, and normalise.

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Replacing PwC Technology Advisory in Healthcare? We've done this before.

FDA 21 CFR PART 11-compliant healthcare engineering. Fixed price. Production in 8-20 weeks.

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Healthcare — Pharmaceuticals & Life Sciences
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Failed Vendor Recovery
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Compliance Remediation
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