Formally introducing yourself in an email

Something like this?

Dear Mr Jones,

I'm John Smith, a code monkey, and I work with Phillip in the IT pit. He suggested that you might be able to help me hack into Accounts and give myself a raise.

It would really help me in my new project - P0232 - Theft for Fun and Profit.

I'm free for the rest of the day because I'm pulling a sickie.

Boomshanka,

David

Maybe something like this:

Dear Mr Smith,

my name is Neo, and as I got your email address from Mr Morpheus without having met you in person before, please allow me to introduce myself first.

My profession is that of a programmer. I have expert knowledge in search engines and one of my latest project involved developing my own search engine for automatic web page scraping and later text classifaction and rating using a semi-autonomous text analysis agent.

...

I have learned from Mr Morpheus that you are currently involved in a project dealing with similar issues. Therefore, I would like to offer my expertise to you.

If you are interested, do not hesitate to call me at +1 2317 424242.

Sincerely yours

Neo Anderson