Photo courtesy of BruntWork

Winston Ong never intended to become the David who would topple the Goliaths of business process outsourcing. Yet here he stands, CEO of BruntWork, a company that has achieved complete enterprise security compliance.

While traditional BPO giants struggle to meet basic regulatory requirements, BruntWork has assembled the holy trinity of security certifications that secure the most lucrative enterprise contracts.

The Security Trinity That Changes Everything

What separates BruntWork from the crowd is its certifications—ISO 27001:2022, HIPAA, and SOC2 Type 2 certifications. This trifecta is something most outsourcing providers have not achieved completely. Competitors may chase volume through call centers in developing markets, but Ong bet everything on becoming the Fort Knox of data security.

“We realized early that, yes, enterprises wanted cheap labor, but they also needed partners who could handle the most sensitive operations without creating compliance nightmares for their legal teams,” Ong explains.

The strategy proved prescient. Major enterprises now face regulatory environments where a single data breach can trigger millions in fines and irreparable reputational damage. Traditional outsourcing models, built on cost arbitrage and loose oversight, suddenly became liability magnets.

An ASX-listed travel giant discovered this firsthand when it partnered with BruntWork for critical operations. The project completed 12% faster than their highest performance tier requirements, leading to immediate contract expansions. Such results explain why over hundreds of law firms globally now trust BruntWork with their most confidential client matters.

Speed Kills the Competition

BruntWork’s deployment timeline is also noteworthy. Where competitors require 30 to 60 days to launch operations, BruntWork delivers in 5 to 10 business days. This 90% speed improvement has reset client expectations across the sector and created a competitive moat that traditional players struggle to cross.

The mathematics of this advantage compounds quickly. Companies facing urgent scaling needs or market opportunities cannot afford two-month delays. BruntWork’s rapid deployment capability has become particularly valuable during economic turbulence, when businesses need flexible workforce solutions that can expand or contract within days rather than quarters.

This agility helps with logistics and more. BruntWork operates across several countries in different continents, providing access to 3,000+ certified professionals who can seamlessly integrate with existing teams. The geographic diversity offers natural redundancy and 24/7 operational capability that single-location competitors don’t have.

Specialized Virtual Assistant Expertise

One reason for BruntWork’s continued growth is the diversity of specialized remote roles it offers clients. For example, its virtual insurance assistant service enables agencies to streamline everything from claims processing to policy renewals, ensuring even heavily regulated industries benefit from secure, expert support.

The company’s growth trajectory suggests the market has been waiting for exactly this combination of security and speed. From serving local Australian businesses to managing operations for NASDAQ-listed companies, BruntWork has scaled without sacrificing the quality metrics that initially attracted enterprise clients.

Traditional BPO giants built their empires on a simple premise: labor arbitrage through massive call centers in low-cost markets. This model worked brilliantly when compliance requirements were minimal and data security concerns were afterthoughts. Today’s enterprise buyers are under different constraints entirely.

Regulatory frameworks like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX have transformed outsourcing from a procurement decision into a risk management exercise. Chief Information Officers now evaluate vendors through security audits. BruntWork’s triple certification eliminates the lengthy due diligence processes that can derail traditional outsourcing relationships before they begin.

In the financial aspect, companies using BruntWork report 40% to 70% cost reductions compared to domestic hiring, but without the compliance risks that make CFOs lose sleep. This combination of savings and security has set up outsourcing as a strategic growth enabler.

Economic forecasts suggest this positioning will become even more valuable. McKinsey projects that global talent shortages will reach 85 million workers by 2030, particularly in skilled roles requiring English proficiency and technical expertise. BruntWork’s network of university-educated professionals across multiple continents provides a solution.

Financial Operations and Innovation

For organizations seeking support across their finance departments, BruntWork offers dedicated accounting virtual assistant services. These help businesses with everything from payroll to tax preparation and reporting, all delivered through secure, remote channels. This approach lets clients modernize financial management and scale while maintaining high standards for confidentiality and compliance.

The company’s success during the COVID-19 pandemic offers a preview of its resilience during future disruptions. Traditional BPO providers struggled with office closures and health protocols, but BruntWork’s distributed model delivered 700% revenue growth. This performance validated the architecture of their business model under extreme stress conditions.

BruntWork’s expansion plans target $100 million in annual recurring revenue while maintaining its current growth rate. The company aims to establish operations across 20+ countries and deploy 5,000+ certified professionals by 2027. These ambitious targets reflect confidence in a market that values security compliance over pure cost reduction.

Winston Ong built an outsourcing company that enterprises actually trust. Industry giants seem to continue optimizing for volume and margins, but BruntWork optimized for absolute reliability when handling sensitive operations. The result is a company that has turned compliance from a cost center into a competitive weapon, proving that sometimes the best way to disrupt an industry is simply to do what everyone else avoids doing.

Recovery from the Palisades and Altadena fires in January is ongoing, but one small bright spot has emerged from the ruin and darkness.

A blue-and-white 1977 Volkswagen T2 bus — a viral sensation after miraculously surviving the mass destruction of homes, schools and businesses — will be available for public viewing following a major restoration.

The revamped “Azul, the magic bus,” as 30-year-old owner Megan Weinraub calls it, will be featured at this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show, which runs from Friday through Nov. 30 at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown L.A. From there, the VW will be on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard from Dec. 4 to Jan. 11 before being returned to Weinraub.

For those unfamiliar with Weinraub’s bus, there’s a back story. As people worldwide watched wildfires ravage neighborhoods around Los Angeles County in January, some found comfort in the story of Weinraub’s little engine that could.

Her 1977 Volkswagen was left standing after the Palisades fire devastated the Malibu neighborhood where Weinraub had parked it after a day of surfing. She found out the vehicle had survived when she spotted it in a powerful image taken by the Associated Press’ Mark J. Terrill. In the photo, amid the destruction and burned rubble, Weinraub’s bright blue-and-white VW stood seemingly intact.

During a Wednesday evening event at the Petersen, Weinraub said she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“It was crazy to see, but I knew it was mine because I’d parked it there,” she said. “At first, I felt guilty because everyone did lose a lot, and then my things made it. So I was like, ‘Everyone is suffering.’ But everyone was like, ‘This bus is coming out in a positive way, as a beacon of hope.’ I would love for it to be a symbol of that. I am grateful that I will be the light in the times of darkness, and my bus is for that. I love that. I want to be of service.”

The image was so striking that some people online questioned if the photograph was somehow manufactured by AI. “People were like, ‘She Photoshopped that,’” Weinraub said. “I’m like, ‘Why would I do that?’ ”

However, once Weinraub saw her VW in person, she discovered something. “It did burn,” she said. “It just survived somehow.”

Gunnar Wynarski, left, and Farlan Robertson are two Volkswagen technicians who helped restore Weinraub’s VW.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For Volkswagen, the situation provided an opportunity. The German auto company contacted Weinraub and offered to inspect the vehicle. VW brought the bus to its location in Oxnard, a facility that houses a number of the auto brand’s historical vehicles. Volkswagen determined Weinraub’s vehicles needed significant mechanical repairs and bodywork to be ready for the road.

“It turned out that that photo that we all saw, that beautiful photo that Mark took, only showed Azul’s good side,” said Rachael Zaluzec, senior vice president of brand marketing and customer experience for Volkswagen of America. “What we didn’t see was the other side of the vehicle that was really badly scarred from the fires. The bus required some pretty extensive work. Now, not just on the exterior, but also the mechanicals. We had to replace things like burnt-out wiring and hoses. There was a lot of bodywork, a lot of paint work that needed to be done.”

Although a full vehicle restoration like this one might take years to complete, employees of Volkswagen of America’s Oxnard Engineering Campus spent the last few months restoring Weinraub’s VW. The Oxnard team repaired and replaced necessary interior and exterior pieces while keeping the bus’ ’70s spirit in tact. GE Kundensport provided additional bodywork, and other contractors provided engine refurbishment and powder coating of various parts.

Guests at Petersen Automotive Museum check out a restored Volkswagen bus known as Azul.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Volkswagen unveiled the restored bus during an opening night event at the Petersen in celebration of the 2025 L.A. Auto Show. To commemorate the project, Volkswagen partnered with Candylab Toys to create a limited-edition wooden version of the bus, which is available for purchase during the auto show.

“She’s glowing,” Weinraub said as her Microbus was revealed. “She looks beautiful.”

Fittingly, the photographer behind the viral photo, Terrill, was present, but on assignment like other photographers at the event.

“It’s all because of you,” Weinraub told him between shots.

“I would love to say that I saw it for what it was when I shot it,” Terrill said. “That isn’t really the case. I saw it for what it was afterwards. While I was in the helicopter, I started looking through the pictures. I thought, ‘Oh, that’s a nice splash of color.’ What I saw was, ‘Oh, that’s so California.’

“You never know when a picture’s going to go viral,” Terrill said. “Pictures take out on a life of their own sometimes. And that’s what happened with this. People saw it and they saw something more in it than I did. They saw what someone else coined as a ‘beacon of hope.’ It’s gratifying that it means that to so many people.”

Azul the Volkswagen bus was restored by VW of America’s Oxnard Engineering Campus.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The interior of Weinraub’s restored VW.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Volkswagen said it made contributions in the amount of $250,000 to the nonprofit California Fire Foundation, which supports first responders and their families throughout the state.

Although VW declined to share the cost of the renovation, the auto company said 50% of the vehicle was repaired with more than 900 parts, and 2,080 hours were put into the restoration, from research to labor.

Megan Weinraub sits her restored Volkswagen T2 bus.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

For Weinraub, a custom surfboard artist, Volkswagen’s efforts have been life-changing. “Two years ago, I made a vision board and put a Volkswagen bus on it,” said Weinraub, who lives in Laguna Beach. “I still have it. Then, I wrote magic, magic, magic, magic, magic all over it. And then, literally, this happens. I’m like, ‘Shut up. Like, I low-key manifested it.’

“I want to use this as a clean slate to start over and re-create my life,” said Weinraub, adding that she plans to take her restored VW on a few camping trips, including one to Big Sur. “This was a perspective change.”