Result: We installed HarePoint AD Self Service to our old on premise SharePoint instance and proceeded to update the AD accounts, this in turn was promoted to the online AD by means of a automate process.
Bottom line: HarePoint AD Self Service is a great tool but will need to be enhanced to interact with online environments. It would be a great help if a filed from AD could be displayed with a drop down list of choices (mainly office locations) to insure continuity of location name spelling etc)