The present BIOS configuration update technique allows a system administrator the ability to remotely configure a set of computing systems from various manufacturers from a single administrator console. A BIOS configuration description is used for defining hardware settings within the computing system. The BIOS configuration description may pre-define a schema that various manufacturers use when designing the interface to the configurable elements within their computing systems. Alternatively, the BIOS configuration description may define a set of rules which the various manufacturers use when designing the interface to their configurable elements within their computing systems. Using the BIOS configuration description, one management application may then access the configurable elements on the computing systems from the various manufacturers.