The centre and origin point of the ITIL Service Lifecycle, the ITIL Service Strategy (SS) volume,[5] provides guidance on clarification and prioritization of service-provider investments in services. More generally, Service Strategy focuses on helping IT organizations improve and develop over the long term. In both cases, Service Strategy relies largely upon a market-driven approach. The Service Strategy lifecycle stage is often considered as the core of the service lifecycle. In Service Strategy stage, the strategic approach for the whole lifecycle is identified to provide values to the customers through IT service management. Key topics covered include service value definition, business-case development, service assets, market analysis, and service provider types. List of covered processes: Strategy management for IT Services Service portfolio management Financial management for IT services Demand management Business relationship management For candidates in the ITIL Intermediate Capability stream, the Service Offerings and Agreements (SOA) Qualification course and exam are most closely aligned to the Service Strategy (SS) Qualification course and exam in the Lifecycle stream. Service Portfolio Management[edit] The customer needs services to achieve business outcomes. The service provider should ensure it can provide these services at the required level. The purpose of Service Portfolio Management is ensuring the service offerings are defined and meet the requirements of the customers. The service portfolio contains the services offerings that are available from the service provider. The service portfolio comprises: the pipeline section, which contains the services that are yet to be offered; the service catalogue section, which contains the details of operational services; and the retired section, which contains details of the services that are no longer offered. Financial management for IT services[edit] Main article: Financial management for IT services IT Financial Management comprises the discipline of ensuring the IT infrastructure is obtained at the most effective price (which does not necessarily mean cheapest) and calculating the cost of providing IT services so an organization can understand the costs of its IT services. These costs may then be recovered from the customer of the service. This is the second component of the service delivery process.