TowerDesk started as a frustration. Property managers in the GCC were juggling spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups, and disconnected legacy systems. We saw an opportunity to unify the entire property operations stack.
The Architecture Decision
We chose a modular monolith approach with Next.js on the front end and a Node.js API layer. This gave us the deployment simplicity of a monolith with the flexibility to extract services later as scale demands.
Key Technical Challenges
AI Move-In/Out Inspector — We trained a computer vision model on thousands of property inspection photos to automatically detect damage, wear, and maintenance issues. This reduced inspection time from 2 hours to 15 minutes.
Emirates ID OCR — We built a custom OCR pipeline that extracts tenant information from Emirates ID cards with 99.2% accuracy, feeding directly into the lease management system.
Real-time Notifications — Using WebSockets and a pub/sub architecture, we deliver instant updates across all stakeholders — from maintenance requests to payment confirmations.
TowerDesk now processes over 50,000 operations monthly across properties in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Sharjah.