> Since each business has multiple trading partners, and each of its trading partner operates on different business systems, “point to point” integration of these transactions (that is, mapping Walmart’s internal database format directly to the QuickBooks JSON API) would require the recipient to have detailed knowledge of many different transaction formats – for example, a company selling to three customers running on NetSuite, SAP, and QuickBooks, respectively, would need to understand NetSuite XML, SAP IDoc, and QuickBooks JSON. Maintaining familiarity with so many systems isn’t practical; to avoid this explosion of complexity, businesses instead use commonly-accepted intermediary formats, which are broadly known as Electronic Data Interchange – EDI.