I don’t discourage people from getting Exchange, but I do try to make sure that they have an appreciation for the trouble involved. There is the cost of the server (you probably need a server anyway, though) and the cost of the software. Then there is the cost of having it maintained. You must back up your Exchange server daily, or it won’t truncate it’s logs and the server will crash after some months. That means that you need to budget for monthly service for the box.
Exchange does have spam filtering, but be prepared for an increase in your spam, or to add on some sort of spam filtering. www.spamstopshere.com provides a good service for Exchange users, I can furnish a local reference for their service if you want.
On the good side, Exchange will allow you common calendars and contact lists that are difficult right now. You will also be in control of your own stuff, something that can be attractive. Consider the benefits of ‘hosted Exchange’. In this scenario, someone else owns and maintains the server off site, you pay a monthly fee of about $15/user. You get all the benefits of Exchange with a controlled expense. I can point you at two or three providers if you want to look into it. These people best server offices that have 2-10 users, after that the internal Exchange server makes more sense. I don’t use an Exchange server for my mail, even though I own servers and already own the software because I’m not willing to deal with the maintenance or spam.