I've dealt with that one several months ago
That's another attack, I've been up close and personal with. It almost mimics a DDoS attack.
That company had Symantec as well. What helped them was that I upgraded to the newest version of Mail Security for Exchange. It has a pretty good spam filter on it. My next move would have been as you suggested and use a spam-filtering service.
The only problem is that I mainly deal with small companies, so they are very concerned about costs. Especially now.