How to animate words formed from smaller type?

Hey everyone...
A client is requesting that I animate a swarm of numbers that loosely form the word "data," then disintegrate and reintegrate into a different word.
I don't expect anyone to explain this step by step, but if you can point me in the right direction that would be a huge help. I'm guessing this is accomplished with some sort of particle system, but maybe there are better ways..? I'm no particle whiz but can usually muddle through tutorials if anyone has any recommendations there. I do not own Particular, just the stock CS6 particle systems, plus VC's new Element system which I guess is technically a particle plugin.

And as a separate question, can AE's render engine work across a wireless network? I work on a MacPro but also have a decent iMac that I'm hoping might speed up some ray traced renders.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

Motion Graphics Designer / Art Director
Boston, MA

System:
Mountain Lion on SSD
2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
NVIDIA Quadro FX 4800
18 GB RAM

I think that Trapcode Particular can be of help in this. You can use letters as the particles, then have them form the shape of a text layer. Take a look on the Red Giant site for some tutorials:

http://www.redgiantsoftware.com

Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com