Building the solution
We will need to deal with both structured data stored in relational databases and unstructured data stored in file systems of various sorts (for example, marketing documents, engineering design drawings). We will manage conflicts between the relational systems using master Data Services, ETL using SSIS, and file system indexing using Search Server and SSIS.
The Electronic Discovery Reference Model (http://edrm.net/) refers to six phases of handling data:
1. Information management
2. Identification
3. Preservation and Collection
4. Processing, Review, and Analysis
5. Production
6. Presentation
Our tasks focus on steps 1 through 3 while providing a firm foundation for steps 4 through 6, which can be handled using SharePoint, SQL Server Reporting Services, and Power Pivot.
In order to execute on these tasks we will need to have two data constructs, one for document and other source metadata and a second to hold relational data for analysis. While we could use two...