How Turner is Using Clearstory to Set a New Standard for Change Order Workflows

Turner Construction, the #1 General Contractor in the U.S., continues to lead the industry in construction innovation.

Turner adopts technology to enhance client value. When it came to one of the most universal challenges in construction—managing Change Orders—Turner saw an opportunity to extend its leadership in innovation and set a new industry standard.

Today, more than 350 Turner projects are using Clearstory to modernize the Change Order process, bringing all stakeholders into a shared, real-time environment that complements Turner’s existing communication systems. Clearstory connects information previously spread across multiple communication channels, integrating it into a single, streamlined workflow. Clearstory has become a seamless extension of Turner’s digital project toolkit, offering a unified view of Change Orders accessible to all partners.

Before adopting Clearstory, Turner’s project teams managed Change Orders through rigorous, detail-oriented processes. By integrating Clearstory, those established workflows became even more streamlined and transparent, reducing manual steps while preserving Turner’s high standards of coordination and control.

Turner teams wanted even tighter real-time alignment across internal project teams, Trade Partners, and Owners, the kind of seamless, single-source visibility that would take their already strong coordination to the next level. 

As Senior Engineer Lana Sarchiapone describes the transformation: “Without having a platform like Clearstory, you have to go to every trade contractor, get a list, make sure we all agree on the numbers, and it could be a really arduous task for trade engineers.” Clearstory transformed manual touchpoints into real-time collaboration, letting Turner's engineers redirect their expertise toward strategic oversight instead of administrative coordination.

Turner first discovered Clearstory through project teams who adopted the platform organically, a grassroots signal that the tool enhanced their established workflows. After a comprehensive technology evaluation, Turner’s Innovation team recognized Clearstory as a scalable solution that builds on the company’s established collaboration systems to drive greater transparency and efficiency.

“We are always looking for new technologies to make us better builders, better managers, and make the process better in some way,” says Turner Vice President and Director of Operations Carlo DiSilvestro.

Designed by a former contractor to advance the industry beyond manual Change Order processes and paper-driven workflows, Clearstory is the industry’s only shared, cloud-based Change Order Communication Software purpose-built to align stakeholders on risk in real time. 

Together, Turner and Clearstory are elevating the industry standard for Change Order management, combining Turner’s expertise in project delivery with Clearstory’s digital collaboration tools to raise the standard for how teams manage scope and cost in real time. The result? Faster decisions, smarter forecasts, and projects that stay on budget, with total visibility and confidence.

With Clearstory, Turner has streamlined the COR processes—replacing the delays of email-based workflows with one live Change Order Log containing dates, details, and real-time status updates visible to all stakeholders.

In addition to improving workflows for Turner teams, the partnership with Clearstory has strengthened relationships with trade partners by creating transparency, reducing surprises, and aligning all parties on scope and cost in real time.

For Turner, that visibility accelerated decision-making, bringing complete transparency to Change Order review cycles. Across hundreds of projects, Turner teams report meaningful reductions in the time it takes to track, review, and reconcile Change Orders.

Turner's engineers were already delivering, but Clearstory gave them breathing room to operate even more strategically. “Even if it's saving them four hours a week, that's a lot.” Sarchiapone says. Those reclaimed hours create capacity for higher-value problem-solving and proactive coordination. 

For Turner project executives, the payoff extends beyond the hours saved. With Clearstory, teams can align more effectively with Owners and close out jobs with confidence. "Now it goes as well to the Owner, and so everyone can see into it, everyone can feel comfortable with it,” says DiSilvestro. “It makes the process a lot smoother." 

"When you're on a joint venture with very capable competitors, they turn to Turner and ask, ‘What can we do differently?’ And we always have the answer. Clearstory is part of that package," says Turner Project Executive Alexandra Schmidt. 

Barrett says, “Together, Turner and Clearstory are demonstrating what forward-thinking construction looks like in practice.”