Around 5,000 years ago, a Sumerian trader poked holes into a clay tablet with a reed.

The holes, early cuneiform, represented the connections between the merchant's wares and his regular customers. Likely, business was booming for the Mesopotamian merchant, and he needed some help remembering details about everyone with whom he had made deals.

Ostensibly, the trader invented the first-ever CRM system, and, like we do today, managed it on a tablet. Really, in 5,000 years, not much has changed.

"We need to remember why we do this; why we've always done this," says Enavate Founder and CEO Thomas Ajspur. "We are trying to help people; to make their lives better."

Ajspur says that he built his company because he wants to "optimize companies' workflows."

"ERPs and CRMs are kind of the heart of a company," he says. "If they don't work within a company, the company isn't functioning as well as it could be. If we can contribute something to optimize the company's employees' workflows, we're changing the company and changing its team's lives.

"Maybe instead of working 12 hours, we're helping somebody go home to their family after seven or eight," he says.

Ajspur says that he uses his desire for human connection, in addition to his passion for innovative technology, to maintain his – and his team's – professional drives.

When discussing a project In those terms, Ajspur says the parties involved "show greater enthusiasm" for their work. He says they begin to challenge each other, ask questions and develop more "original and innovative" solutions.

In other words, by returning to the idea presented by that 5,000-year-old businessman – using technology to make business more personal – Ajspur finds that his team has become more forward-thinking.

It would seem that the Sumerian was onto something. Talk about being ahead of the times!