Account relationship or connections

I have to implement a relationship between various accounts which is not parental but of  varing types . Should I just use out of the box connections or should I create an intersecting entity which connects  one account to another and then specify what type the relationsip it is. This relationship information has to be passed to another system so I’m just wanting to know what would be he best way to go about it. Just trying to keep it simple since the other system is non CRM and connections may be a little over the top?

Thanks G