In the symmetric choreography both partners host a server and both are able to initiate the communication. This option greatly reduces the number of messages that are needed to perform the same actions and places more control in the hands of both partners.

Also the variety of calls that can be made is bigger.

Figure 3: Lifecycle of a Release using symmetric WebService calls

Instead of waiting for a report to be delivered after using the OrderedReleaseInQueue–RequestMessage (7), the partner can be informed immediately after the report is generated, using the ReportDeliveryMessage (6).

As soon as a new release is available for a partner the ReleaseAvailabilityMessage (1) is used to inform. Requesting releases in a specific order is possible. This can be used if there are high priority products, which the partner would like to receive prior to others, for example. In the asymmetric case, there is no way for the provider of releases to request the status of a release in the recipient's supply chain in an automated way. The content provider can only wait until the SupplyChainStatusMessage arrives from the content recipient. In the symmetric choreography the ReleaseSupplyChainStatusRequestMessage(4) allows to actively requests the status of the product in the recipient's supply chain. Again, there are a many more messages and for a detailed description and the full list of messages available please refer to the Release Delivery Choreography Standard.